n 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Purchased  by  the 
Mrs.   Robert  Lenox  Kennedy  Church  History  Fund. 

BV  110  .L48  1888 

Lewis,  Abram  Herbert,  1836- 

1908. 
Biblical  teachings 

concerning  the  Sabbath  and 


--^xH  r 


i- 1  fiii 


v^  '^^' 


BIBLICAL    TEACHmaS^'^^  9  "  1926^ 


CONCEKNIXG 


THE  SABBATH 


AND 


THE  SUNDAY, 


BY 


A.  h/lEWIS,  D.  D. 


AXJTHOB  OF  "  SaBBATEI  AND  SUNDAY,  ABGUMENT  AND  HISTORY  "  ;  "  A  CRITICAL  HISTORY 

OF  THE  Sabbath  and  The  Sunday,  in  the  Christian  Church;'  "A  Critical 

History  of   Sunday  Legislation  from  321  to   1888,  A.  D. ;"  "The 

Seventh-day  Baptist  Hand  Book."    Editor  of  "  The  Outlook 

and  Sabbath  Quarterly,"  and  of  "  The  Light  of  Home.  " 

TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED  AN  IMPORTANT  CHAPTER  ON 
"THE   ORIGIN  OF  THE    WEEK." 


^Econti  iStiition,  Eebi3£ti, 


THE  AMERICAN  SABBATH  TBACT  SOCIETY 

ALFRED  CENTRE,  N.  Y. 

1888. 


PREFACE. 

In  1870  the  author  of  the  following  pages  issued 
a  work  entitled  ''  The  Sabbath  and  the  Sunday, 
Argument  and  History."  The  favorable  reception 
granted  to  that  volume,  and  the  increasing  agita- 
tion concerning  the  Sabbath  question  in  the  United 
States,  led  to  the  issue  of  three  other  volumes,  as 
follows:  The  first  edition  of  this  book  in  1884; 
"  A  Critical  History  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  Sunday 
in  The  Christian  Church,"  a  larger  volume,  which 
embodies  the  history  of  the  theories  and  practices 
relative  to  both  days;  in  1886,  "A  Critical  History 
of  Sunday  Legislation,  from  A.  D.  321  to  1888,"  which 
appeared  in  March,  1888. 

The  second  edition  of  this  book  appears  at  a  time 
when  the  agitation  of  the  Sabbath  question  is  more 
wide-spread  and  intense  than  at  any  previous  time  in 
our  national  history.  The  popular  tendency  is  to 
avoid  a  direct  appeal  to  the  Word  of  God  in  the  set- 
tlement of  the  question.  There  is  also  a  persistent 
but  most  unscholarly  effort  made  in  certain  circles 
to  avoid  the  claims  of  the  Sabbath  as  against  the 
Sunday,  by  asserting  that  the  week  is  an  uncertain 
and  variable  division  of  time,  and  that  we  cannot 
attain   any    definite  knowledge    as  to  what  day  is 


PREFACE. 

the  Sabbath.  The  following  pages  exalt  the  Word 
of  God  as  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice  for  Chris- 
tian men. 

The  Sabbath  question  is  larger  than  any  de- 
nominational lines.  It  involves  the  highest  in- 
terests and  the  future  destiny  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  theory  which  seeks  to  abolish  the 
Decalogue,  and  thus  remove  the  Sabbath,  is  illog- 
ical, deceptive  and  destructive.  Few  men  profess- 
ing to  be  Christians  could  urge  such  a  theory 
were  it  not  for  their  desire  to  avoid  the  claims 
of  the  Sabbath.  The  mission  of  this  book  is  tc 
exalt  the  truth  that  Calvary  glorifies  Sinai,  but 
does  not  remove  it;  that  faith  in  Christ  establishes 
the  law  of  God,  but  does  not  make  it  void. 

Truth  can  afford  to  wait  calmly,  while  error  digs  its 
own  grave.  But  for  the  sake  of  truth  we  have  the 
right  to  demand  a  candid  and  earnest  investigation 
of  the  Sabbath  question-  from  the  Biblical  stand- 
point. What  saith  God's  Word  ?  Read  thought- 
fully, and  act  in  the  light  of  truth  and  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God,  from  whose  eyes  neither  excuses  nor 
sophistry  can  hide  the  soul. 

Plainfield,  N.  J.,  June,  1888. 


'       THE 

SABBATH  A^^D  THE  SUNDAY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

A   PRIORI    ARGUMENT. 


The  patterns  of  all  things  must  exist  as  pure 
thoughts  in  the  mind  of  Jehovah  before  there  can  be 
any  outward  creation.  These  pattern  thouglits  are 
the  laws  by  which  the  work  of  creation  is  developed, 
and  governed.  Therefore  "law"  in  its  pure  pri- 
mary meaning  is  another  name  for  God's  ideal. 
Hence  no  primary  law  can  be  abrogated  or  changed  ; 
for  God's  ideals  are  perfect  and  absolute.  Any 
change  or  abrogation  of  primary  laws  must  destroy 
the  creation,  or  the  government  which  has  been  de- 
veloped according  to  those  laws,  and  is  founded  upon 
them.  Abrogate  the  law  of  "gravitation,"  and  the 
physical  universe  is  at  once  destroyed.  The  same 
is  true  in  moral  government.  Even  the  disobedience 
of  a  single  subject  produces  discord,  and  to  a  certahi 
1 


2  SABBATH  AND  SUNDAY. 

extent,  breaks  up  the  order  of  the  government.  If 
the  hiw-making  power  shall  change  or  abrogate  the 
laws  on  which  the  government  rests,  the  government 
is  changed  or  destroyed.  It  is  also  a  self-evident 
truth  that  all  primary  laws  must  antedate  the  govern- 
ment which  is  based  upon  them,  and  all  perfect  laws 
must  meet  the  necessities  which  grow  out  of  the  rela- 
tions between  the  governor  and  the  governed.  Obe- 
dience on  the  part  of  the  governed  is  at  once  the  sign 
of  fealty,  and  the  means  of  blessing. 

It  is  befitting  to  inquire,  in  the  light  of  the  foregoing 
principles,  whether  the  Sabbath  Law  is  a  primary 
law  in  moral  government,  or  only  a  temporary  en- 
actment made  with  reference  to  a  primary  law. 

The  conmiemorative  rest  of  Jehovah  at  the  close 
of  his  creative  work  is  the  first  expression  of  the 
Sabbath  idea.  This  rest  follows  close  upon  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work,  as  though  it  were  a  j^art  of  the 
original  pattern.  And  when  it  is  rememl)ered  that 
the  Sal^bath  law  meets  the  demands  which  grow  out 
of  our  relations  to  God,  which  relations  existed  from 
the  birth  of  the  race,  the  conclusion  is  inevitable  that 
the  Sabbath  law  was  a  primary,  structund  law  in  the 
moral  universe,  and,  like  all  other  [)rimary  laws,  had 
its  origin  in  the  mind  of  Jehovah  "before  the  world 
was." 


A  PRIORI  ARGUMENT.  3 

The  idea  of  God  as  Creator  is  the  all-embracing 
idea.  His  character  as  Law-giver,  and  Redeemer, 
flows  from  the  idea  of  Creator.  Fealty  to  God,  as 
well  as  our  highest  good,  demands  that  we  constantly 
remember  him  and  our  i-elations  to  him.  Hence  the 
Sabbath  law  links  itself  with  this  all-embracino:  idea 
of  the  true  God,  the  maker  of  heaven  and  of  earth,  the 
Creator  and  Redeemer  of  men,  and  holds  it  ever  before 
us.  A  law  which  thus  forms  the  central  thread  of 
communion  between  the  Creator  and  the  creature, 
which  thus  meets  the  universal  demands  arising  from 
our  relations  to  him,  which  is  God's  never-ceasing 
representative  in  time,  must  be  as  universal  and 
enduring  as  the  system  of  which  it  is  a  part. 

Man  is  a  social  as  w^ell  as  a  religious  being.  In 
this  dual  nature  the  highest  motive  that  can  enter 
into  our  relations  to  each  other  is,  "Love  to  man." 
This  unites  the  race,  and  linking  with  "Love  to  God  " 
leads  us  up  to  him.  The  universal  expression  of  love 
to  God  is  worship.  Social  worship  is,  therefore,  the 
natural  result  of  the  highest  action  of  man's  dual 
nature.  But  social  worship  could  never  become  uni- 
versal or  permanent  without  a  stated  and  definite 
time,  fixed  by  the  author  of  man's  nature  and  the 
object  of  his  worship.  Illustration  ;  If  a  governor 
orders  an  election  of  oflicers,  and  appoints  no  time 


4  SABBATH  AND  SUNDAY. 

when  the  election  shall  be  held,  there  is  not  only  a 
want  of  wisdom  in  the  arrangement,  but  the  election 
must  be  a  failure.  To  say  that  God  did  not  pre-or- 
dain the  Sabbath  law,  as  a  structural  law  in  moral 
government,  is  to  charge  the  Perfect  One  with  simi- 
lar folly. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  God's  relations  to  his  own 
work,  our  relations  to  him,  and  our  relations  to  each 
other,  all  combine  to  show  that  the  Sabbath  law 
must  have  been  a  primary,  structural  law  of  the  moral 
government  under  w^hich  we  exist.  Being  such,  it 
can  only  be  abrogated  by  the  annulling  of  all  these 
relations,  and  the  destruction  of  the  government. 


CHAPTER  II. 

SCRIPTURAL    ARGUMENT. 

Approaching  the  Scriptures,  we  find  the  funda- 
mental facts  in  exact  harmony  witli  the  foregoing  a 
'priori  conclusions.  When  the  Sabbath  law  appears, 
it  is  linked  with  the  ])eginning  of  man's  experience, 
and  founded  upon  the  example  of  Jehovah. 

Hence  the  question  arises  at  the  threshold  of  the 
Scriptural  argument  concerning  the  Sabbath  : 

Can  the  Laic  of  the  SahhafJi  and  the  Day  of  the 
Sabbath  be  separated?  Two  points  carefully  ex- 
amined, will  answer  this  question. 

(a)  Why  was  the  seventh  day  chosen  as  the  Sab- 
bath? 

{b)  By  virtue  of  what  did  it  become  the  Sabbath? 

{a)  God  could  not  commemorate  the  work  of  crea- 
tion until  it  was  completed.  It  was  not  completed 
until  the  close  of  the  sixth  day.  Hence  no  day  pre- 
vious to  the  seventh  could  have  been  chosen  as  the 
Sabbath.  Previous  to  the  seventh  day  creation  was 
only  a  " becoming."     With  the  opening  of  the  seventh 

5 


6  SABBATH  AND  SUNDAY. 

day  it  sprang  into  full  being.  This,  therefore,  was 
creation's  birthday,  and  hence  the  only  day  that 
could  be  chosen  to  commemorate  the  rest  of  God  from 
the  completed  work  of  creating.  As  one  cannot 
celebrate  his  birthday  on  a  day  earlier  or  later  than 
that  on  which  his  birth  occurred,  so  Jehovah  sancti- 
fied the  seventh  as  the  only  day  which  could  answer 
the  original  idea  of  the  Sabbath  law.  Therefore  the 
Sabbath  Law  and  the  Sabbath  Day  designated  by  its 
author  are  inseparable.  Applied  to  any  other  day 
the-  law  has  no  meaning. 

(b)  The  acts  of  Jehovah  by  which  the  seventh  day 
was  consecrated  as  the  Sabbath.  God  rested  on  that 
day,  hence  the  sacredness  arising  from  his  example 
can  pertain  to  no  other  day.  God  blessed  the  day 
and  hallowed  it,  because  he  had  rested  upon  it.  Thus 
the  elements  of  sacredness  and  of  commemorative- 
ness  are  inseparably  connected  with  the  day.  If  the 
law  be  applied  to  another  day,  it  becomes  meaning- 
less ;  for  the  law  demands  a  day  thus  made  sacred, 
and  no  other  day  than  the  seventh  could  be  made 
sacred  for  those  reasons.  Nor  can  the  seventh  day 
cease  to  be  thus  sacred,  until  it  shall  cease  to  be  a 
fact  that  God  rested  upon  that  day  and  blessed  it. 
This  can  never  be. 

Again,  no  other  day  than  the  seventh  can  meet  the 


SCRIPTURAL  ARGUMENT.  7 

demands  of  our  own  natures,  since  no  other  day  can 
keep  God  in  mind  through  this  commemorative 
sacredness.  Any  other  day,  observed  for  any  reason 
not  mentioned  in  the  law.  has  another  kmguage — 
speaks  of  other  things,  and  hence  cannot  speak  to 
the  soul  as  God  designed  the  Sabbath  shoukl  speak. 
Thus  it  appears  tiiat  God  chose  the  seventh  day  for 
good  and  sufficient  reasons,  reasons  which  spring 
from  the  eternal  fitness  of  things,  and  which  co-exist 
with  our  race.  Therefore,  if  there  be  any  Sabbath, 
it  must  he  the  seventh  day.  The  law  centers  around 
the  da//,  and  is  meaningless  when  applied  to  any 
other.  Much  is  said  by  certain  writers  concerning 
the  "  Sabbath  institution,"  as  though  it  were  distinct 
from  the  Sabl)ath  law  and  the  Sabbath  day.  A  glance 
will  suflSce  to  show  the  illogicalness  of  such  a  claim. 
An  institution  io  only  the  outgrowth  of  organific  law. 
Refuse  or  neglect  to  obey  the  law  the  institution  is 
destroyed.  Illustration:  During  the  late  "rebell- 
ion," the  institutions  of  the  United  States'  govern- 
ment ceased  to  exist  w^herever  the  laws  of  that 
irovernment  were  disobeved.  So  he  who  refuses  to 
obey  the  Sabbath  law  destroys  the  Sabbath  institu- 
tion so  far  as  his  power  extends. 

At  this  point,  some  readers   will  raise  the  query 
as  to  the  lenirth  of   God's    creative    days,  and  their 


8  -  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

bearing  on  the  question  before  us.  Our  answer, 
briefly,  is  this  :  God's  power  is  infinite,  measureless. 
His  acts,  and  the  time  in  which  he  performs  them, 
are  also  unmeasurable  by  us.  We  apprehend  that 
the  creative  week  was  infinitely  longer  than  our  week 
of  sev^en  days  of  twenty-four  hours.  But  since  it 
was  a  week,  and  since  God  rested  from  his  work  on 
the  seventh  day  of  that  week,  and  since  he  command- 
ed us  to  do  in  our  iceeh^  as  he  did  in  /a'.s,  all  difficulty 
in  the  case  vanishes.  Our  week  is  modeled  after 
God's  by  his  command.  AYe  are  to  do  in  our  sphere 
of  action  after  his  example  in  his  sphere  of  action. 
The  Sabbath  law,  given  by  him,  demands  this,  and 
the  observance  of  any  other  day  than  the  seventh 
and  last  day  of  the  week,  for  any  reason,  is  not  obe- 
dience to  God's  law.  Finite  men,  acting  in  finite 
days,  do  follow  the  example  of  an  Infinite  God,  acting 
in  unmeasured  days,  if  they  preserve  the  same  order, 
according  to  his  command  ;  otherwise,  they  do  not. 
The  second  question  is  :  Was  the  Sabbath  Law 
knoicn  to  men  before  the  giving  of  the  Decalogue  at 
Mount  Sinai  ?  All  the  arguments  presented  in  a 
former  chapter,  to  prove  that  the  Sabbath  law  is  a  pri- 
mary law,  will  apply  with  equal  force  to  the  above 
question.  To  those  reasons  the  following  may  be 
added  :  All  the  primary  relations  between  God  and 


SCRIPTURAL    ARGUMENT .  9 

his  creatures  existed  before  the  giving  of  the  Deca- 
loofue.  All  the  wants  of  man's  nature  existed  durins: 
that  time,  hence  all  laws  made  to  meet  these  rela- 
tions and  answer  these  wants  must  have  been  co- 
existent with  the  relations  and  demands.  There  was 
an  especial  demand  for  a  knowledge  of  the  Sabbath 
during  this  period,  as  a  safeguard  against  the  prevail- 
ing tendency  to  forget  God  and  accept  heathenism. 
Besides  this,  God  having  made  the  Sabbath  sacred 
at  creation,  it  could  have  been  no  less  than  sin  to  pro- 
fane it  in  any  time  thereafter,  and  God  does  not  leave 
his  creatures  without  the  knowledge  requisite  to 
obedience.  Hence  we  must  conclude  that  the  Sab- 
bath was  known  before  the  giving  of  the  law  at  Sinai. 
This  conclusion  is  in  harmony  with  the  unanswerable 
argument  of  Paul  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,^  in 
which  he  shows  that  since  sin  existed  "  from  Adam  to 
Moses,"  therefore  the  law  must  have  existed,  for  "Sin 
is  not  imputed  where  there  is  no  law."  Christ  pro- 
claims the  same  truth  when  he  teaches  the  eternal 
nature  of  the  law,  and  the  fact  that  "  the  Sabbath  was 
madfe  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath." ^  In 
this  Christ  clearly  indicates  that  the  Sabbath  law  an- 
tedated the  race,  and  was  given  for  the  especial  ben- 

iKomansv.  12 — 15;  and  iv.  15. 
2Markii.   27. 


10  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

efit  of  the  race.  Hence  also  his  right,  as  "Lord  of 
the  Sabbath,"  to  indicate  how  it  ought  to  be  observed, 
since  all  things  were  made  by  him. 

The  brief  Scriptural  record  concerning  the  period 
between  the  creation  and  the  giving  of  the  law  con- 
firms the  foregoing  conclusions.  In  the  second 
chapter  of  Genesis,  first  to  fourth  verses,  we  have 
the  history  of  the  instituting  of  the  Sabbath  in  the 
following  words  : 

"And  the  heaven  and  the  earth  were  finished  and  all 
the  host  of  them." 

"  And  on  the  seventh  day  God  finished  his  work  which 
he  had  made  ;  and  he  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all 
his  work  which  he  had  made." 

"And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  hallowed  it; 
because  that  in  it  he  rested  from  all  his  work  w^hich  God 
created  and  made.^  " 

This  fact  so  full  of  deep  meaning,  and  inseparable 
from  the  history  of  creation,  could  not  have  been  un- 
known to  Adam  and  the  patriarchs  who  "walked 
with  God,"  and  were  taught  by  him.  Knowing  of 
the  existence  of  the  Sabbath,  they  must  have  known 
of  its  sacredness,  and  their  duty  to  observe  it.  The 
septenary  division  of  time  into  weeks  was  well  un- 
derstood during  the  patriarchal  age.  ^     This  knowl- 

^  All  quotations  are  from  the  Revised  Version. 
2  See  Genesis  vii.  4—8;  10—12. 


SCRIPTURAL    ARGUMENT.  11 

edge  necessitates  a  knowledge  of  the  Sabbath  by 
which  the  weeks  are  separated.^  But  positive  tes- 
timony is  not  wanting.  The  sixteenth  chapter  of 
Exodus  shows  that  the  Sabbath  was  known  and  ob- 
served before  the  giving  of  the  Decalogue  at  Sinai, 
and  that  the  first  special  test  of  obedience  which  God 
made  after  the  Israelites  left  Egypt  was  concerning 
its  observance.  The  orivinof  of  the  manna  occured 
on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  second  month,  and  the 
Hebrews  did  not  reach  Sinai  until  some  time  during 
the  third  month  after  their  departure  from  Eg\^pt. 
In  the  fourth  verse  of  this  16th  of  Exodus,  it  is  said 
that  God  told  Moses  : 

"  Behold  I  will  rain  bread  from  heaven  for  j^ou,  and  the 
people  shall  go  out  and  gather  a  day's  portion  every  day, 
that  I  may  prove  them,  whether  they  will  walk  in  my  law 
or  no." 

This  shows  that  the  test  of  obedience  was  to  be 
made  in  connection  with  the  gathering  of  the  man- 
na according  to  a  certain  daily  rate. 

The  next  verse  gives  the  test,  viz.  : 

'"And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  on  the  sixth  day  that  they 
shall  prepare  that  which  they  bring  in,  and  it  shall  be 
twice  as  much  as  they  gather  daily." 

1  For  collateral  testimony  showing  that  the  week  and  the  Sab- 
bath were  known  also  outside  the  patriarchal  line,  testimony 
which  indicates  an  universal  revelation  concerning  the  week  and 
the  Sabbath  at  the  first,  see  Appendix  A. 


12  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

It  is  plain  that  the  test  lay  in  the  voluntary  jorep- 
arations  for  the  Sabbath  on  the  part  of  the  people  ; 
for  in  the  sixteenth  verse  Moses  reveals  nothing:  to 
the  people  except  the  order  to  gather  the  stated  por- 
tion each  day  ;  and  when  some  would  not  heed  this 
order, ^  the  manna  not  only  became  worthless,  but 
Moses  testified  his  displeasure  at  their  disobedience. 
The  people  were  not  ordered  to  gather  a  double  por- 
tion on  the  sixth  day,  nor  were  they  at  first  informed 
that  the  manna  should  not  fall  upon  the  Sabbath. 
They  were  left  wholly  ignorant  on  this  point  in  order 
that  the  test  of  their  obedience  might  be  complete. 
Hence  it  is  said  in  the  twenty-second  verse  that  when 
the  sixth  day  came,  and  the  people  voluntarily  gath- 
ered an  extra  portion  for  the  Sabbath,  the  rulers 
came  at  once  and  told  Moses  of  their  apparent  diso- 
bedience. Then,  for  the  first  time,  Moses  revealed 
to  them  what  God  had  said  concerning  the  test  to  be 
made  and  told  them^  that  there  should  be  no  manna 
on  the  Sabbath.  Nevertheless  some  went  out  to  seek 
for  it  on  the  Sabbath,  and  God  rebuked  them  in  a 
way,  and  with  a  severity,  which  is  wholly  inconsist- 
ent with  the  idea  that  this  was  their  first  offense. 
He  says  :  ^ 

''How  long  refuse  ye  to  keep  my  command7nents 

J  20th  verse-     "  26th  verse.  ^  28th  verse. 


GIVING    THE    LAW.  13 

and  my  laws,''  etc.  There  is  no  appearance  of  any- 
thing new,  or  of  the  introduction  of  anything  before 
unknown.  The  conditions  of  the  test,  and  the  vol- 
untary act  of  the  people  in  preparing  for  the  Sabbath, 
show  that  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  was  well  under- 
stood b}^  them,  and  that  it  had  come  to  them  from 
the  patriarchal  age,  before  their  bondage  in  Egypt. 

GIVING    THE    LAW. 

A  careful  study  of  the  history  of  the  organization 
of  the  Jewish  nation  reveals  the  following  important 
facts  : 

1.  The  Decalogue  was  given  first  in  order  of  time, 
as  the  embodiment  of  all  moral  law,  the  foundation 
of  all  government. 

2.  Certain  ceremonies  were  instituted  teaching 
physical  and  spiritual  purity,  offering  forgiveness 
through  faith  and  obedience,  and  pointing  to  a 
coming  Saviour. 

3.  Civil  and  ecclesiastico-civil  regulations  were 
made  for  the  organization  of  the  nation  and  the  en- 
forcement of  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  Deca- 
logue, which  b}^  its  nature,  and  by  the  circumstances 
that  attended  the  giving  of  it,  is  shown  to  be  entirely 
distinct  from  the  ceremonial  and  civil  regulations. 
That  nine  of  these  ten  laws  are  eternal  is  unques- 


14  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

tioned.  Some  are  found  who  claim  that  the  Sabbath 
law,  embodied  in  the  fourth  commandment  is  cer- 
emonial and  not  moral.  If  the  claim  be  true,  then 
God,  the  infinite  in  wisdom,  placed  it  where  it 
did  not  belong,  and  so  deceived,  not  only  the  Israel 
ites,  but  the  world.  By  such  misplacement,  too,  the 
ceremonial  code  was  left  imperfect,  in  a  very  im- 
portant particular.  It  is  also  an  unquestioned  fact 
that  the  Jews  never  deemed  the  Sabbath  law  as  cer- 
emonial. God  bases  the  Sabbath  law  upon  his  own 
example,  and  teaches  that  it  finds  its  beginning  and 
authority  in  his  acts  at  the  close  of  the  creative 
week ;  while,  if  the  above  claim  be  true,  it  was  not 
commemorative  of  God  and  his  work,  but  typical  of 
Christ.  A  theory  which  thus  charges  God  with 
ignorance  or  premeditated  deception,  or  with  both, 
sinks  under  the  weight  of  its  own  inconsistency. 

THE    TWO    COVENANTS. 

Before  closing  this  chapter,  it  is  necessary  to  an- 
swer another  query  which  will  arise  concerning  what 
are  loosely  called  the  Old  and  the  New  Covenants. 
It  is  a  prominent  part  of  the  stock  in  trade  of  mod- 
ern No-Sabbathists  to  claim  that  God  made  one  cov- 
enant with  the  Jews,  which  was  annulled  when 
Christ  came,  and  that  thus  the  Decalogue,  and  so 


THE    TWO    COVENANTS.  15 

the  Sabbath  law,  were  annulled.  The  confusion 
which  exists  in  the  popular  theories  on  this  point  is 
great.  It  arises  from  a  superficial  understanding 
of  the  nature  of  God's  government,  and  the  mean- 
ing of  the  term  covenant.  To  clear  up  this  con- 
fusion, it  is  necessary  to  inquire  Avhat  the  meaning 
of  covenant  is,  as  used  in  the  Scriptures. 

Worcester  gives  the  following  excellent  definition 
of  the  theological  use  of  the  term,  viz.:  "The 
promise  of  God  to  man  that  he  shall  receive  certain 
temporal  or  spiritual  blessings  upon  certain  condi- 
tions, or  upon  the  performance  of  the  duties  pointed 
out  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments." 

What  was  the  "  old  covenant "  ?  The  term  cove- 
nant occurs  first  in  Gen.  vi.  18,  in  connection  with 
the  building  of  the  Ark  ;  that  covenant  was  essentially 
this  :  Noah,  believing  God's  word,  and  building  the 
Ark,  as  God  directed,  should  be  saved  from  destruc- 
tion. This  is  the  model  of  all  "covenants."  Men 
are  to  do  a  given  thing,  whereupon  God  does  or 
grants  certain  things,  as  results.  The  covenant  with 
Abraham,  Gen.  xv.,  is  of  the  same  nature;  in  this, 
God  promises  to  give  "This  land,"  etc.  (18  v.),  to 
Abraham's  seed,  if  they  obey  him.  In  the  17th 
chapter  the  promise  of  a  great  posterity  is  added. 
In  all  the  covenants  between  individuals,  the  same 


16  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

features  appear ;  an  agreement  wherein  each  has  a 
part  to  perform.  When  the  children  of  Israel 
groaned  under  the  bondage  in  Egypt,  God  assured 
them  that  he  remembered  his  promise  to  give  them 
the  land  of  Canaan.     Ex.  ii.   24;    vi.   4,  5. 

In  the  organizing  of  the  Hel)rew  theocracy,  after 
the  exodus,  the  deeper  meaning  of  covenant  comes 
out,  in  what  is  properly  termed  the  law  covenant. 
Man  is  not  an  independent  contracting  party,  l)ut  a 
subject  who  is  under  obligation  to  obey  whatever 
God  -may  command.  Hence,  obedience  to  God's 
law  is  the  only  way  in  which  man  can  keep  a  cove- 
nant with  God.  In  Exod.  xix.  5,  6,  obedience  is 
the  ground  on  which  it  is  promised  that  Israel  shall 
become  a  "  kingdom  of  priests  and  an  holy  nation." 
Since  the  law  of  God  contains  the  essential  terms  of 
the  covenant  l)y  indicating  what  ol^edience  consists 
in,  the  law  is  often  spoken  of  as  the  covenant,  by  a 
common  figure,  metonymy.  This  metonymical  use 
of  law,  and  covenant,  is  common  in  Exodus,  and  in 
Deuteronomy.  The  failure  to  recognize  this  use  has 
led  to  no  little  confusion  and  error,  as  has  also  the 
fact  that  the  reasons  assigned  in  Deuterononjy  why 
the  Isralites  should  o])ey  the  law  of  God,  are  spe- 
cific, national,  and  narrow,  when  compared  with  the 
general  and  eternal  reasons  on  which  the  laws  of  the 


THE    TWO    COVENANTS.  17 

Decalogue  rest.  This  covenant  concerning  the  keep- 
ing of  the  Decalogue  also  included  the  method  l^y 
which  men  might  find  forgiveness  when  they  had 
broken  the  law,  viz.,  by  sacrifices.  This  was  the 
method  of  "administering  "  the  law.  In  the  broad- 
est sense,  therefore,  the  "old  covenant"  included, 

(a)  The  Decalogue,  which  was  the  basis  of  all  else. 

(b)  The  ceremonial  system  through  which  forgive- 
ness of  sin  might  be  found  in  case  of  the  transgres- 
sion of  the  Decalogue. 

In  order  to  complete  our  answer  to  the  query  un- 
der consideration,  we  here  add  :  the  "new  covenant" 
was,  (a)  The  same  law  of  God,  written  in  men's 
hearts  instead  of  on  tables  of  stone.  That  is, 
changed  from  an  outward  restraint  to  an  inward 
control ;  thus  its  power  was  intensified,  (b)  For- 
giveness of  sin — the  transgression  of  God's  law — 
through  faith  in  Christ,  and  not  through  ceremonies 
and  sacrifices. 

A  common  and  most  hurtful  error  of  our  time  is 
the  essential  destruction  of  this  new  covenant,  by 
teaching  the  abrogation  of  the  Decalogue,  and  hence 
the  removal  of  all  obligation  from  men;  which,  be- 
ing done,  there  can  be  no  covenant,  since  obedience 
is  man's  part  of  the  covenant.  The  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  is  referred  to  by  many  as  teaching  such 
2 


18  SABBATH  AND  SUNDAY. 

abrogation  of  the  Decalogue,  and  hence  of  the  Sab- 
bath. Without  discussing  the  authorship  of  He- 
brews, it  is  pertinent  to  say  that  it  is  not  a  general 
Epistle.  It  is  addressed  to  a  single  church,  or  to  a 
small  group,  probably  at  Alexandria.  Those  ad- 
dressed had  accepted  Christ  as  the  Messiah,  but  still 
cluns  to  the  ceremonial  code  as  the  sfround  of  for- 
giveness  and  justification.  Thus  they  were  sure  to 
sink  back  into  Judaism,  unless  they  could  be  brought 
to  a  higher  view  of  faith  in  Christ,  as  both  Messiah 
and  Saviour.  The  first  ten  chapters  of  Hebrews 
aim  to  bring  about  this  broader  view,  and  this  deep- 
er conviction.  The  argument  culminates  in  the  six- 
teenth verse  of  the  tenth  chapter,  wherein  the  new 
covenant  shows  the  law  written  in  men's  hearts,  and 
for«:iveness  granted  through  the  blood  of  Christ. 
The  argument  is  not  that  the  law  is  done  away,  but 
that,  under  the  gospel  covenant,  men  are  made  free 
from  the  sin  resulting  from  disobedience,  through 
Christ's  sacrificial  work,  and  not  through  the  ofter- 
ings  whereby  forgiveness  had  been  sought  under 
Judaism. 

The  same  idea  is  brought  out  in  Paul's  second  let- 
ter to  the  Corinthians  (iii.  2-11).  This  is  often  ad- 
duced as  showing  the  abrogation  of  the  Decalogue, 
whereas  the  true  intent  is  a  comparison  of  the  glory 


THE    TAVO    COVENANTS.  19 

of  the  two  methods  of  administering  the  law,  and  find- 
ing forgiveness  for  its  transgression.  In  the  sixth 
verse,  Paul  defines  the  new  covenant  as  based  upon 
the  deeper,  spiritual  meaning  of  the  law.  In  the 
seventh  verse  he  shows  that  the  law  of  the  Decalogue, 
even  when  written  on  stones,  was  glorious,  but 
when  it  is  written  in  the  heart,  and  its  deeper  mean- 
ing is  understood,  it  is  far  more  glorious.  The 
eleventh  verse  shows  that  what  is  specifically  spoken 
of  as  being  "  done  away,"  is  the  glory  which  shone 
on  the  face  of  Moses  when  the  law  was  given  on 
Sinai.  This  represents  the  glory  of  the  former 
method  of  administering  the  law,  which  glory  passed 
away  before  the  surpassing  glory  of  the  gospel 
method  of  administering  the  same  law.  It  is  the 
same  thought  which  is  set  forth  in  Hebrews,  by  the 
law  as  written  on  tables  of  stone,  as  less  power- 
ful than  when  written  in  men's  hearts  by  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

Paul  to  the  Romans  teaches  the  same  truth  in  the 
most  intense  manner.  The  first  seven  chapters  of 
Eomans  are  terrible  in  the  severity  with  which  they 
set  forth  the  power  of  the  law  of  God,  the  Deca- 
logue, whereby  comes  the  knowledge  of  sin,  and  its 
condemnation.  At  the  same  time  they  set  forth 
faith    in    Chris«t    as    the  means    of   relief  from   this 


20  SABBATH.  AXD  SUNDAY. 

condemnation,  throuirli  forgiveness.  The  argument 
opens  in  the  16th  verse  of  the  1st  chapter.  It  reach- 
es the  climax  in  the  7th  chapter.  But  lest  any  should 
misapprehend  his  meaning,  Paul  draws  several  clear- 
cut  conclusions  in  the  course  of  the  argument.  He 
places  the  main  question  at  rest,  and  beyond  contro- 
versy, in  the  3d  chapter,  31st  verse,  "Do  we  then 
make  void  the  law  through  faith?  God  forbid. 
Yea,  we  establish  the  law."  The  logic  of  this  prop- 
osition is  unmistakable.  Faith  is  demanded  under 
the  gospel  as  the  means  of  salvation  from  sin  ;  hence 
faith  establishes  the  law  which  convicts  of  sin.  This 
is  the  ]>urden  of  Paul's  argument  throughout.  "For 
by  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of  sin  ;"  "For  where  no 
law  is,  there  is  no  transgression  ;"  "But  sin  is  not 
imputed  where  there  is  no  law ;"  "What  then?  shall 
we  sin  l)ecause  we  are  not  under  the  law  but  under 
grace  ?  God  forbid  ; "  "  What  shall  we  say  then  ? 
Is  the  law  sin?  God  forbid,  Nav  I  had  not  known 
sin  but  by  the  law;"  "Wherefore  the  law  is  holy, 
and  the  commandment  holy,  and  just  and  good." 
Rom.  iii.  20  ;  iv.  15  ;  v.  13  ;  vi.  15  ;  vii.  7,  12.  Such 
are  the  conclusions  which  Paul  scatters  through  his 
argument  before  he  reaches  the  climax  in  the  seventh 
chapter.  Please  study  those  chapters,  and  see  that 
the  whole  economy  of  grace  in  the  gospel  is  a  farce,  if 


THE    TWO    COVEXANTS.  21 

we  attempt  to  interpret  Paul's  argument  in  any  other 
way.  If  the  Decalogue,  ihe  only  law  which  can  con- 
vict of  sin,  be  abrogated  by  the  death  of  Christ,  or 
destroyed  as  a  part  of  the  old  covenant,  then  Christ 
made  it  impossible  for  men  to  sin  or  to  have  a  knowl- 
edge of  sin  after  that  time.  Thus  he  died  to  redeem 
men  from  that  which  could  not  be.  To  such  contradic- 
tion does  no-lawism  come.  Paul  taught  that  the  law 
of  God  which  convicts  of  sin,  the  Decalogue,  was  in 
full  authority,  as  a  condemning  power.  AVe  have 
already  seen  that  the  author  of  Hebrews  teaches  that 
the  hiAv  is  intensified  in  its  authority  and  power  to 
condemn,  by  being  written  in  men's  hearts.  Thus 
Christ  who  came  not  to  destroy  the  law,  and  the 
apostle  who  teaches  that  it  is  established,  confirmed, 
strengthened  by  faith,  agree. 

The  Decalogue  instead  of  being  done  away  as  a  part 
of  the  Old  Covenant,  is  the  foundation  of  both  cov- 
enants, being  the  rule  whereby  man  is  to  be  guided 
in  keeping  his  part  of  the  covenant  with  God.  Upon 
the  ground  of  obedience  God  promised  Israel  certain 
blessings.  But  in  his  mercy  he  also  added  a 'method 
whereby  forgiveness  might  be  attained  in  case  of 
failure  to  obey.  Under  the  Jewish  economy  this  was 
through  the  ceremonial  system  ;  under  the  Gospel  it 
is  through  faith  in  Christ ;  under  ]>oth  systems  con- 


22  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

fession  must  precede  forgiveness,  which  must  also  be 
foUowed  by  a  forsaiving  of  sin  in  order  to  continued 
acceptance.  When  Christ  came  the  better  method  of 
finding  forgiveness  and  salvation  from  sin  supersed- 
ed that  which  was  more  burdensom  eand  less  glorious. 
The  foundation  of  both  covenants  was  God's  law  in 
the  Decalogue.  The  difference  between  the  two  was 
in  the  method  by  which  men  were  to  find  forgiveness 
in  case  of  transgression. 


CHAPTER   III. 

TEACHINGS   OF   CHRIST   CONCERNING   THE    LAW. 

Christ  is  the  central  figure  in  both  dispensations. 
If  new  expressions  of  the  Father's  will  are  to  be  made 
in  connection  with  the  work  of  Christ  on  earth,  they 
must  be  made  by  the  "  Immanuel,"  who  is  thus  '^  rec- 
onciling the  world  unto  himself."  Did  Christ  teach 
the  abrogation  of  the  Decalogue  of  which  the  Sab- 
bath law  is  a  part?     Let  his  own  words  answer  : 

''Think  not  that  I  came  to  destroy  the  law  or  the 
prophets.  I  came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill.  For 
verily  I  say  unto  you,  till  heaven  and  earth  pass  away,  one 
jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  away  from  the  law, 
till  all  things  be  accomplished.  AVhosoever,  therefore, 
shall  break  one  of  these  least  commandments,  and  shall 
teach  men  so,  shall  be  called  least  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  ;  but  whosoever  shall  do  and  teach  them,  he  shall 
be  called  great  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven."^ 

When  Christ  speaks  of  the  law  (tov  vofiov)  in 
these  emphatic  words,  he  cannot  mean  the  ceremo- 
nial code,  for  these  ceremonies  were  typical  of  him 

1  Matthew  v.  17—19. 

23 


24  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

and  must  pass  away  with  his  death.  Besides  this, 
the  word  fulfill  (yrXTjpcoaai)  means  the  opposite  of 
destruction  (^KaraXvaai) .  Clirist  fulfilled  the  law 
by  perfect  obedience  to  it.  He  corrected  false  in- 
terpretations, and  intensified  its  claims.  He  taught 
obedience  to  it  in  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter,  and 
urged  obedience  from  love  rather  than  fear.  Such  a 
work  could  not  have  been  done  in  connection  v^ith 
the  dying  ceremonies  of  the  Jewish  system.  Such  a 
work  Christ  did  do  with  reference  to  the  Decalogue. 
In  connection  w^ith  the  passage  above  quoted  Christ 
immediately  refers  to  two  laws  from  the  Decalogue, 
explains  and  enforces  their  meaning  in  a  way  far  more 
broad  and  deep  than  those  wdio  listened  to  him  were 
wont  to  conceive  of  them. 

On  another  occasion  ^  a  certain  shrewd  lawyer 
sought  to  entrap  the  Saviour  by  asking  '*  which  is  the 
greatest  commandment  in  the  law."  The  question 
has  no  meaning  unless  it  be  applied  to  the  Decalogue. 
Christ's  answer  includes  all  the  commandments  of 
the  Decalogue  and  thus  avoids  the  trap  designed 
by  the  questioner,  who  sought  to  lead  him  into  some 
distinction  between  laws  known  to  be  equal  in  their 
nature  and  extent. 

in  the  sixteentJt  chapter  of  Luke,  '^  Christ  again 
1  Matthew  xxii.  o5 — 40.  ^j^Q^yerse 


CHRIST    AND    THE    LAAV.  25 

affirms  in  the  strongest  language,  that  "  It  is  easier 
for  heaven  and  earth  to  pass,  than  one  tittle  of  the 
law  to  fail."  Language  could  not  be  plainer  than 
that  which  is  used  in  these  statements. 

These  sentiments  accord  fully  with  the  practice  of 
Christ  rehitive  to  the  Sabbath.  He  boldly  condemned 
the  unjust  requirements  which  the  Jews  had  attached 
to  the  observance  of  it,  and  taught  that  works  of 
mercy  were  to  be  freely  done  on  that  day ;  that  it 
was  made  for  man's  good,  and  not  his  injury.  But 
he  never  taught  that  because  it  was  "  made  for  man  " 
therefore  it  was  to  be  abrogated,  or  unsanctified. 
Neither  did  he  delegate  to  his  disciples  any  power  to 
teach  the  abrogation  of  the  law,  or  of  the  Sabbath. 
On  the  contrary,  their  representative  writings  con- 
tain the  same  clear  testimony  in  favor  of  the  perpe- 
tuity of  the  law,  and  show  the  same  practical 
observance  of  the  Sabbath.  Paul,  the  great  reasoner 
among  the  Apostles,  after  an  exhaustive  discussion 
concerning  the  relations  between  the  law  and  the 
Gospel,  concludes  the  whole  matter  in  these  words  : 

"Do  we  then  make  the  law  of  none  effect  through 
faith?     God  forbid  !     Nay,  we  establish  the  law."^ 

Again  in  the  same  epistle  ^  he  presents  a  conclu- 
sive argument,  starting  from  the  axiom  that  "  where 
i  Romans  iii.  31.  ^p^Q^^ai^s  y_  13   14 


26  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

there  is  no  law  there  is  no  sin."  Showing  that  since 
death,  which  came  by  sin,  reigned  from  Adam  to 
Moses,  therefore  the  law  then  existed,  and,  by  the 
same  reasoning  that  if  there  be  no  law  under  the  gos- 
pel dispensation,  there  can  be  no  sin ;  if  no  sin,  then 
no  Saviour  from  sin,  and  Christ  died  in  vain,  if  by 
his  death  he  destroyed  the  law.  In  another  place 
Paul  contrasts  the  Decalogue  with  the  ceremonial 
code  and  declares  the  worthlessness  of  the  one  and 
the  binding  character  of  the  other,  in  these  w^ords  : 

"Circumcision  is  nothing,  and  uncircumcision  is  noth- 
ing, but  the  keeping  of  the  Commandments  of  God."^ 

Thus,  in  a  plain  and  unequivocal  way,  Paul  teaches 
as  his  Master  taught. ^ 

EXAMPLE. 

The  example  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  is  in  full 
harmony  with  their  teachings.  During  Christ's  life, 
while  his  disciples  were  with  him,  the  Sabbath  was 
always  observed  by  him  and  them.  In  all  his  acts 
there  is  no  hint  that  the  law  was  to  be  annulled.  On 
the  contrary,  Christ  speaks  prophetically  of  the  Sab- 
bath as  an  existing  institution  at  the  time  when  Jeru- 

^  1.  Corinthians  vii.  19. 

2  Passages  quoted  from  Paul's  writings,  to  prove  the  abrogation 
of  the  law,  will  be  fully  examined  in  another  place. 


EXAMPLE    OF    APOSTLES.  27 

salem  should  be  destroyed,^  and  tells  his  disciples  to 
pray  that  their  flight  might  not  occur  on  that  day, 
knowing  that  this  destruction  would  not  come  until 
long  after  his  death. 

DID    THE    APOSTLES    OBSERVE    THE    SABBATH? 

The  book  of  Acts  is  the  main  source  of  history 
concerning  these  men.  It  tells  where  they  journey- 
ed, what  they  preached,  and  what  befell  them.  The 
tJiirteenth  chapter  ^  contains  the  following  account : 

"  But  they,  passing  through  from  Perga,  came  to  Anti- 
och  of  Pisidia,  and  they  went  into  the  synagogue  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  and  sat  down." 

Being  invited  to  speak,  Paul  preached  to  them 
concerning  Christ,  and  especially  concerning  his 
death  and  resurrection  ; — a  significant  fact  to  be  care- 
fully noted  and  more  fully  examined  hereafter.  To 
say  that  this  was  done  by  the  Apostles,  as  Jeics^  is 
to  charge  them  w^ith  unmanly  dissembling.  They 
w^ere  Christians  teaching  others  to  become  Christians. 
Neither  did  they  seek  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath 
simply  to  teach  the  Jews  ;  for  it  is  stated  in  this 
same  chapter,  that : 

"  And  as  they  went  out,  they  besought  that  these  words 
might  be  spoken  to  them  the  next  Sabbath.     And  the  next 

1  Matthew  xxiv.  20.  "  14th  verse. 


28  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

Sabbath  almost  the  whole  city  was  gatherea  together  to 
hear  the  word  of  God."  ^ 

Pursuing  the  history  through  the  next  chapter,  we 
find  Paul  and  his  companions  continuing  to  travel 
from  place  to  place,  preaching  and  gathering  churches, 
until  the  calling  of  the  council  at  Jerusalem,  an 
account  of  which  is  found  in  the  fifteenth  chapter. 
This  council  and  its  decisions  have  a  direct  bearing 
upon  the  question  under  consideration.  The  object 
of  the  council  was  to  decide  how  far  Gentile  converts 
should  be  required  to  conform  to  those  ordinances 
and  ceremonies  which  were  peculiarly  Jewish.  Had 
the  Sabbath  belonged  to  these,  some  reference  to  it 
could  not  have  been  avoided,  since  the  Jews  deemed 
it  of  paramount  importance,  and  Paul  and  his  com- 
panions had  just  come  from  a  tour  among  the  Gen- 
tiles, to  whom  they  had  taught  its  observance.  The 
silence  of  that  council  concerning  the  Sabbath,  and 
its  decisions  relative  to  minor  questions,  are  evi- 
dence that  the  Sa1)l)ath  was  openly  recognized  and 
observed  by  all,  under  the  universal  law  of  the 
fourth  commandment. 

The  points  involved  in  the  Jerusalem  council  are 
as  follows  : 

(a)  Should  Gentile  converts  be  required  to  sub- 
^  42d  and  44th  verses. 


EXAMPLE    OF   APOSTLES.  29 

mit  to  circumcision  and  keep  the  ceremonial  law,  as 
requisites  to  salvation  ?  To  this  question  the  council 
promptly  answered,  No.  This  answer  did  not  touch 
the  Sa])bath  in  any  way. 

(b}  Certain  things  were  required.  But  these 
were  really  outside  of  the  ceremonial  code.  Idola- 
try and  lewdness  were  in  direct  violation  of  the  laws 
of  the  Decalogue.  The  eating  of  blood  was  akin  to 
idolatry,  as  a  species  of  sacrilege.  The  first  prohi- 
bition concerning  it  was  given  to  Noah.  Gen.  ix. 
4.  This  was  repeated  and  more  fuU}^  explained  in 
Lev.  xvii.  10-14.  In  the  11th  verse  the  reason  given 
makes  the  requirement  more  than  ceremonial,  since 
it  is  based  on  the  fact  that  God  had  made  blood 
the  sign  of  atonement  on  the  altar.  To  the  early 
Jewish  converts  it  stood  as  the  representative  of 
Christ's  blood  so  lately  shed  for  the  salvation  of 
both  Jew  and  Gentile.  Hence  James  deemed  it 
worthy  to  be  classed  with  moral  precepts,  since  sac- 
rilege and  idolatry  were  thus  one.  This  council 
was  not  called  for  the  purpose  of  legislation,  and 
had  no, power  to  annul  a  law  of  the  Decalogue.  Its 
purpose  was  to  arrange  the  difference  between  the 
Judaistic  and  the  Gentile  elements  in  the  church,  and 
to  testify  that  salvation  came  by  faith,  and  not  by 
ceremonies  which  had  once  pointed  to  Christ,  but 


30  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

were  now  obsolete,  since  Christ  had  come  and  suf- 
fered. It  is  a  preposterous  stretch  of  logic  to  claim 
for  such  a  council  the  right  to  annul  a  law  of  the 
Decalogue.  And  more:  if  silence  concerning  the 
Sabbath,  on  the  part  of  this  council,  indicates  that  it 
deemed  the  Sal^bath  law  annulled,  the  same  is  true 
of  all  the  other  laws  except  those  against  idolatry 
and  lewdness.     The  proposition  destroys  itself. 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  council,  Paul  and  Silas 
set  out  in  one  direction,  and  Barnabas  and  Mark  in 
another,  to  revisit  those  churches  already  formed, 
and  preach  the  Word  in  other  fields.  The  history 
of  this  tour  shows  the  same  recognition  and  observ- 
ance of  the  Sal^bath.  It  is  said^  that  they  came  to 
Philippi,  "the  chief  city  of  that  part  of  Macedonia, 
and  abode  there  certam  days,"  and,  in  the  words  of 
the  historian  : 

"  And  on  the  Sabbath  day,  we  went  forth  without  the 
gate  by  a  river  side,  where  we  supposed  there  wns  a  place 
of  prayer ;  and  we  sat  down  and  spake  unto  the  women 
which  were  come  together." 

This  was  a  place  for  out-door  worship   in  a  city 

which  was  probably  destitute  of  a  synagogue.     It 

was  twenty  years  after    Christ's    resurrection,   and 

among  those  who,  of  all  others,  w^ould  be  most  likely 

^  Acts  xvi.  12.  10. 


EXAMPLE    OF    APOSTLES.  31 

to  discard  the  Sabbath.     From  Philippi  the  apostles 
proceeded  to  Thessalonica, 

"Where  was  a  synagogue  of  the  Jews,  and  "  Paul," 
as  his  custom  was,  went  in  unto  them,  and  for  three 
Sabbath  days  reasoned  with  them  from  the  Scriptures." 

''  Opening  and  alleging  that  it  behooved  the  Christ  to 
suffer  and  to  rise  again  from  the  dead,  and  that  this  Jesus 
whom  said  he  I  proclaim  unto  you  is  the  Christ." 

"And  some  of  them  were  persuaded,  and  consorted 
with  Paul  and  Silas  ;  and  of  the  devout  Greeks  a  great 
multitude,  and  of  the  chief  women  not  a  few."  ^ 

Passing  from  thence  to  Berea,  and  thence  to  Atli- 
ens,  in  both  of  which  places  Paul  taught  in  the  syna- 
gogues, they  came  to  Corinth,  where  Paul  remained 
"a  year  and  six  months,  and  reasoned  in  the  syna- 
gogue every  Sabbath,  and  persuaded  the  Jews  and 
the  Greeks." -^3 

The  nineteenth  chapter  relates  that  Paul  taught  for 
two  years  and  three  months  at  Ephesus.  ^'  So  that 
ail  they  which  dwelt  in  Asia  heard  the  word  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  both  Jews  and  Greelvs."' 

1  xVcts  xvii.  2,  5.  ■ 

2  Acts  xviii.  4  and  11. 

3 It  was  at  this  time  that  Paul  organized  the  church  at  Corinth, 
to  which  he  wrote  five  years  later,  telling  them  to  lay  by  their  gifts 
for  the  poor  at  Jeiusalem,  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  See  an 
examination  of  this  passage  in  the  next  chapter. 


32  SABBATH   AND    SUNDAY. 

SUMMARY. 

Collating  these  facts,  and  summing  up  the  case  as 
regards  the  example  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  it 
stands  as  follows  : 

1.  During  the  life  of  Christ  the  Sabbath  was  al- 
ways observed  by  him,  and  b}^  his  followers.  He 
corrected  the  errors  and  false  notions  which  were 
held  concerning  it,  but  gave  no  hint  that  it  was  to  be 
abrogated. 

2.  The  book  of  Acts  gives  a  connected  history  of 
the  recognition  and  observance  of  the  Sabbath  by  the 
apostles  while  they  were  organizing  many  of  the 
churches  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament.  These 
references  extend  over  a  period  of  eight  or  nine 
years,  the  last  of  them  being  at  least  tw^enty  years 
after  the  resurrection. 

3.  In  all  the  history  of  the  doings  and  teachings 
of  the  apostles,  there  is  not  the  remotest  reference  to 
the  abrogation  of  the  Sab1)ath. 

Had  there  been  any  change  made  or  beginning  to 
be  made,  or  an}^  authority  for  the  abrogation  of  the 
Sal)l)ath  law,  the  apostles  must  have  known  it.  To 
claim  that  there  was  is  therefore  to  charge  them 
with  studiously  concealing  the  truth.  And  also,  with 
recognizing  and  calling  a  day  the  Sabbath  which  ivas 
not  tJte  Sabbath. 


SUMMARY.  33 

Add  to  these  considerations  tlie  following  facts  : 

(a)  The  latest  books  of  the  New  Testament,  in. 
eluding  the  Gospel  of  John,  were  written  a])ont  the 
year  ninety-five.  In  none  of  these  is  there  an\'  trace 
of  the  change  of  the  Sabbath,  nor  is  the  abrogation 
of  the  Sabbath  law  taught  in  them. 

(6)  The  Sabbath  is  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment sixty  times,  and  always  in  its  appropriate 
character. 

Thus  the  law  and  the  gospel  are  in  harmony,  and 
teach  that  "the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Lord  thy  God." 

But  some  will  say,  "Christ  and  his  apostles  did 
all  this  as  Jews,  simply."  If  this  be  true,  then 
Christ  lived  and  taught  simply  as  a  Jeiv  and  not  as 
the  Saviour  of  the  looiid.  On  the  contrary  he  was 
at  war  with  the  false  and  extravagant  notions  of 
Judaism  concerning  questions  of  truth  and  duty. 
If  Christ  were  not  a  "Christian,"  but  a  "Jew,"  what 
becomes  of  the  system  which  he  taught?  If  his 
first  followers,  who  periled  all  for  him  and  sealed  their 
faith  with  their  blood,  were  only  Jews,  or  worse,  were 
dissemblers,  doing  that  w^hich  Christians  ought  not 
to  do,  for  sake  of  policy,  where  shall  Christians  be 
found?  The  assumption  dies  of  its  own  inconsistency. 
More  than  this.  New  Testament  history  repeatedly 
3 


34  SABBATH   AND   SUNDAY. 

states  that  the  Greeks  were  taught  on  the  Sabbath 
the  same  as  the  Jews,  and  in  those  churches  where 
the  Greek  element  predominated  there  is  no  trace  of 
any  different  teaching  or  custom  on  this  point.  The 
Jewish  Christians  kept  up  their  national  institutions, 
for  a  time,  such  as  circumcision  and  the  passover, 
while  all  Christians  accepted  the  Sabbath  as  a  part 
of  the  law  of  God.  The  popular  outcry  against  the 
Sabbath  as  "Jewish  "  savors  more  of  prejudice  and 
i'gnorance  than  of  consistency  and  charity.  Christ 
was  in  all  respects,  as  regards  nationality,  a  Jew. 
So  were  all  the  writers  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
all  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament.  God  has 
given  the  world  no  word  of  inspiration  in  the  Bible, 
from  Gentile  pen,  or  Gentile  lips.  Is  the  Bible 
therefore  "Jewish"?  The  Sabbath,  if  possible,  is 
less  Jewish  than  the  Bible.  It  had  its  beginning 
long  l)of()re  a  Jew  was  born.  It  is  God's  day  mark- 
ed by  his  own  example,  and  sanctified  by  his  blessing, 
for  the  race  of  man,  beginning  when  the  race  l)egan, 
and  can  end  only  when  the  race  shall  cease  to  exist. 
Christ  recognized  it  under  the  gospel  as  he  recog- 
nized each  of  the  othcsr  eternal  laws  with  which  it  is 
associated  in  the  Decalogue  ;  recognized  them  as  the 
everlasting  words  of  his  Father,  whose  law  he  came 
to  magnify  and  fulfill.     It  tells  of  pitiable  weakness. 


NO-SABBATHISM,    O.    T.  35 

and  unchristian  irreverence,  to  attempt  to  thrust  out 
and  stigmatize  any  part  of  God's  truth  as  "Jewish," 
when  all  of  God's  promises  and  all  Bible  truth  have 
come  to  us  through  the  Hebrew  nation. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OPPOSING  THEORIES  EXAMINED. 

NO-SABBATH    THEORY. 

By  this  is  meant  the  prevalent  theory  that  there  is 
no  sacred  time  under  the  gospel  dispensation ;  that 
the  Sabbath  was  only  a  Jewish  institution,  which 
began  with  the  Hebrew  nation,  and  was  abrogated 
at  the  death  of  Christ.  Against  such  a  theory  the 
following  points  have  already  been  established. 

1.  The  Sabbath  law,  being  a  primary  law  in  moral 
government,  is  necessarily  co-existent  with  that  gov- 
ernment. 

2.  The  Sabbath  as  God's  memorial,  his  monument 
and  representative  in  time,  came  into  being  when  he 
rested  upon  the  seventh  day,  and  blessed  and  sancti- 
fied it. 

3.  The  Sabbath  law  grew  out  of  the  relations  which 
always  have  existed  between  the  Creator  and  the 
creature,  and  meet  certain  universal  demands  in  hu- 
man life  ;  it  cannot  therefore  cease  until  these  rela- 
tions and  demands  shall  cease. 

33 


NO-SABBATHISM,    O.    T.  37 

4.  The  BI])le  history,  and  collateral  testimony,  (see 
appendix,)  show  that  the  Sa])bath  was  ol)served  pre- 
vious to  the  organization  of  the  Hebrew  nation. 

5.  When  Jehovah  a'ave  the  eternal  laws  of  his  o-ov- 
ernment  to  the  world,  in  the  Decalogue,  he  placed 
the  Sabbath  law  as  the  key-stone  of  the  arch.  It 
alone  contains  the  signature  of  God,  the  Creator. 

6.  The  Bi])le  nowhere  represents  the  Sabbath  as 
a  ceremonial  institution.  It  has  nothing  in  common 
with  those  festival  days,  which,  as  a  part  of  the  cere- 
monial code,  pointed  to  Christ. 

7.  Christ  and  his  apostles  taught  the  perpetuity  of 
the  law,  and  always  observed  the  Sabbath. 

Such  an  accumulation  of  evidence  is  enough  to 
justify  these  pages  in  giving  the  Xo-Sabbath  theory 
no  further  notice.  Nevertheless,  it  is  better  to  ex- 
amine its  leading  claims.  The  following  is  a  repre- 
sentative passage  from  the  Old  Testament  :  ^ 

"  The  Lord  our  God  made  a  covenant  with  us  in  Horeb." 
"  The  Lord  made  not  this  covenant  with  our  fathers,  but 
with  us,  even  us,  who  are  all  of  us  alive  here  this  day." 

The  claim  is  made  that  the  Decalogue  was  this  cove- 
nant.    Vie  have   shown  that  the  covenant  was   not 
God's  law,  but  an   agreement  between  Jehovah  and 
his  people,  by  which  they  were  boun  1  to  keep  that 
1  Deut.  V.  2,  3,  15. 


38  SABBATH   AND    SUNDAY. 

law,  and  he,  upon  such  obedience,  to  grant  to  them 
certain  promised  blessings.  The  case  is  a  very  plain 
one,  and  needs  no  further  remark,  in  addition  to  what 
has  been  said  on  pages  fifteen  and  sixteen.  The 
fifteenth  verse  reads  as  follows  : 

"  And  remember  that  thou  wast  a  servant  in  the  land 
of  Egypt,  and  that  the  Lord  thy  God  brought  thee  out 
thence  through  a  mighty  hand  and  by  a  stretched-out  arm  ; 
therefore  the  Lord  thy  God  commanded  thee  to  keep  the 
Sabbath  day." 

In  the  face  of  the  plain  statement  made  by  Jeho- 
vah in  the  Decalogue,  the  claim  is  here  made  that  the 
deliverance  from  Egypt  was  the  cause  why  the  Sab- 
bath was  instituted.  The  reader  will  remember  that 
the  goodness  of  God  in  delivering  the  Israelites  from 
bondage  is  often  used  as  a  reason  for  their  obedience 
to  all  his  commandments.  ^  If,  therefore,  the  claim 
of  the  Xo-Sab])ath  theory  be  correct,  all  the  laws  of 
the  Decalogue  were  given  for  that  reason.  This  is 
absurd.  The  whole  truth  is  contained  in  a  single 
sentence,  namely  :  God's  goodness  to  the  Israelites  is 
presented  as  a  reason  why  tJiey  sJioidd  obey  him.  In 
the  case  quoted,  the  latter  clause  of  the  fourteenth 
verse  shows  that  the  Israelites  were  there  urged  to 
allow^  their  servants  the  blessing  of  the  Sabbath  rest, 
and  they  are  referred  to  their  own  bondage  in  Egypt 
'■  See  Exodus,  xx.  2.    Lev.  xxvi.  13.     Ps.  Ixxxi.  9, 10,  etc. 


NO-SABBATHISM,    N.    T.  39 

in  contrast  with  their  delivered  state,  to  strengthen 
this  appeal.  But  if  there  were  any  doubt  as  to  the 
correctness  of  this  simple  explanation,  the  fact  that 
the  Jews  never  understood  the  8al)bath  as  commem- 
orative of  their  deliverance  from  Egypt  settles  the 
question.  More  than  this,  the  "passover"  was  giv- 
en and  is  yet  observed ,  to  commemorate  that  deliv- 
erance. Its  whole  meaning  and  language  befit  such 
an  end,  while  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath  is  in  no  way  sig- 
nificant of  the  turmoil  and  hurry  oi  t\\Q.  exode.  Be- 
sides all  this,  the  No-Sabbath  theory  contradicts 
God's  plain  words,  in  Genesis,  ii.  3  ;  and  Exodus, 
XX.  11. 

NO-SABBATHISM    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

Only  a  few  "  proof  texts  "  are  quoted  from  the  New 
Testament  in-  support  of  the  No-Sabbath  theory. 
The  following  from  Paul's  letter  to  the  Roynans'^  is 
deemed  a  strong  one. 

"Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faith  receive  ye,  hut  not  to 
doubtful  disputations."  '^ 

"  For  one  believeth  he  may  eat  all  things  ;  another  who 
is  weak,  eateth  herbs." 

"  Let  not  him  that  eateth,  despise  him  that  eateth  not; 
and  let  not  him  which  eateth  not,  judge  him  that  eateth ; 
for  God  hath  received  him." 

^  xiv.  1-7.  -  "  Not  to  judge  his  doubtful  thoughts." 


40  SABBATH    AXD    8UXDAY. 

"  Who  art  thou  that  judgest  another  man's  servant? 
To  his  own  master  he  standeth  or  falleth  ;  yea  he  shall 
be  holden  up  ;  for  God  is  able  to  make  him  stand." 

"  One  man  esteemeth  one  day  above  another  ;  another 
esteemeth  every  day  alike.  Let  every  man  be  inWy  per- 
suaded in  his  own  mind." 

"He  that  regardeth  the  day,  regardeth  it  unto  the  Lord  ; 
and  he  that  regardeth  not  the  day,  to  the  Lord  he  doth  not 
regard  it.  He  that  eateth,  eateth  to  the  Lord,  for  he 
giveth  God  thanks  ;  and  he  that  eateth  not,  to  the  Lord 
he  eateth  not,  and  giveth  God  thanks." 

This  passage  concerning  the  observance  of  days  is 
thus  given  with  its  contexts,  that  the  reader  may  the 
more  readily  see  what  theme  Paul  is  considering. 
This  fourteenth  chapter  directs  how  those  shall  be 
treated  who  still  cling  to  that  part  of  the  ceremonial 
code  which  refers  to  clean  and  unclean  foods,  and  cer- 
tain days  which  were  associated  with  them.  There 
is  no  description  of  the  days,  or  the  manner  in  which 
they  were  observed,  but  every  law  of  just  interpre- 
tation classifies  them  with  the  other  ceremonial  ob- 
servances mentioned.  It  is  well  known  that  public 
and  private  voluntary  fasts  abounded  among  the  Jews 
at  this  time,  in  addition  to  the  older  ceremonial  feasts. 
Whatever  did  not  touch  the  question  of  seeking  for- 
giveness through  Christ  is  thus  spoken  of  as  not 
important  enough  to  ])e  a  bar  to  fellowship,  or  a  source 


NO-SABBATHISM,    N.    T.  41 

of  contention.  A  similar  instance  occurs  in  Gal.  iv. 
10,  where  the  ceremonial  times  are  grouped  as  "  days, 
months,  times,  and  years  "  ;  in  this  case,  as  with  those 
addressed  in  Hebrews,  the  tendency  seems  to  have 
been  tow^ard  apostasy  from  Christ  by  substituting 
these  ceremonial  observances  for  faith.  The  observ- 
ance of  the  Sabbath  had  never  been  a  part  of  the 
ceremonial  system.  It  had  always  been  a  promi- 
nent feature  of  the  Decalogue,  and  its  observance 
could  not  conflict  with  faith  in  Christ  any  more  than 
the  observance  of  the  remaining  ten  commandments 
could.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  reliance  on  the 
ceremonial  system  for  purification  from  sin,  rather 
than  on  faith  in  Christ,  which  the  apostle  is  every- 
where opposing.  Paul  being  his  own  interpreter, 
makes  this  doubly  sure  ;  for  in  the  seventh  chapter^ 
of  this  same  epistle — Rom. — he  speaks  of  the  Dec- 
alogue, of  which  the  Sabbath  law^  is  a  part,  in  these 
words  : 

"Wherefore  the  law  is  holy,  and  the  commaudment 
holy,  and  just,  and  good." 

A  careful  study  of  this  seventh  chapter  of  Ro- 
mans will  show  that  Paul  places  the  highest  impor- 
tance upon  the  observance  of  that  law  which  convicts 
of  sin,  and  is  thus  our  "school-master," leading  us  to 

^  12th  verse. 


42  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

Christ  for  forgiveness.     And  James,  speaking  of  the 
same  law,  says  :  ^ 

"For  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  3'et 
offend  in  one  point ^  he  is  guilty  of  all." 

Paul  could  not  say  in  one  breath  that  such  a  law 
was  of  great  importance,  and  in  the  next  that  it  was 
of  little  or  no  importance. 

The  second  chapter  of  Colossi ans'^  is  often  quoted 
as  a  clear  statement  of  the  No-Sabbath  theory. 

"  Let  no  man  therefore  judge  you  in  meat  or  in  drink, ^ 
or  in  respect  of  an  holy  day,"^  or  of  the  new  moon,  or  of 
the  sabbath  days  ;"  "^ 

''  Which  are  a  shadow  of  things  to  come  ;  but  the  body 
is  Christ." 

Here  it  is  claimed  that  the  "sabl)aths"  are  dis- 
tinctly included  among  things  indifferent.  Note, 
first,  it  is  not  said  that  they  are  abrogated  ;  the 
most  that  can  be  made  of  the  expression  is  that  they 
are  not  to  be  made  a  matter  of  dissension  or  con- 
demnation. Looking  at  the  passage  more  closely  we 
find  that  four  of  the  things  mentioned  are  certainly 
ceremonial :  eating,  drinking,  feasts  and  new  moons. 

Mi.  10. 

21GLI1  and  17th  verses. 

3 Greek,  "for  eatiiiiij  or  drhiking." 

*  Greek,  "conceniinsj  the  participating  in  a  holy  festival." 

5 Greek,  "Sabbaths.'' 


NO-SABBATHISM,    N.    T.  43 

The  fifth  item,  "sabbaths,"  is  in  the  same  construc- 
tion, and  stands  in  the  midst  of  the  sentence.  If 
the  expression  does  include  the  weekly  Sabbath,  it  is 
an  illogical  and  unwarrantable  eftbrt  to  take  an  eter- 
nal law  from  the  heart  of  the  Decalogue,  and  class  it 
with  temporary  ceremonial  precepts,  for  the  sake  of 
abrogating  it.  Christ  never  ventured  such  an  attack 
on  the  law  of  God,  as  Paul  makes  here,  if  he  means 
the  weekly  Sabbath.  But  we  are  not  left  in  doul^t 
as  to  what  "sabbaths"  are  meant,  for,  without  stop- 
ping to  take  breath,  Paul  defines  them  as  being,  like 
the  other  items,  shadows,  types  of  Christ.  What- 
ever the  word  "sabbaths"  might  mean  considered 
alone,  the  definition  given  here  cannot  include  the 
weekly  Sabbath.  That  antedated  the  ceremonial 
code  man}^  centuries.  The  law  of  the  fourth  com- 
mandment was  placed  in  the  heart  of  the  Decalogue, 
before  the  ceremonial  code  was  compiled.  God 
knew  where  it  belonged.  The  reason  given  for  en- 
acting the  fourth  commandment  is  i)erfectly  plain. 
It  was  a  memorial  of  God  as  Creator.  It  is  never 
spoken  of  as  a  type  of  Christ.  The  Jews  never 
understood  it  to  be  snch.  If  the  fourth  command- 
ment was  a  type  of  Christ,  and  is  done  away,  then 
each  of  its  nine  associates  is  in  the  same  category. 
Even  the  ol^scure    passage  in  the  4th  of   Hel)rews 


44  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

makes  it  a  type  of  heaven,  if  a  type  at  all.  The 
construction  of  the  passage  in  Colossians,  and  the 
definition  given,  both  preclude  the  idea  tliat  the 
weekly  Sabbath  is  meant. 

The  third  chapter  of  second  Corinthians  is  also 
impressed  to  do  duty  in  defense  of  the  No-Sabbath 
theory.  The  following  passage  embodies  the  testi- 
mony, so-called  : 

"But  if  the  ministration  of  death  written  and  engraven 
in  stones  was  glorious,  so  that  tlie  children  of  Israel  could 
not  steadfastly  look  upon  the  face  of  Moses  for  the  glory 
of  his  countenance — which  (jlory  was  to  be  done  away — 
how  shall  not  the  ministration  of  the  spirit  be  rather 
glorious?"  etc.^ 

A  careful  reading  will  show  that  the  contrast  here 
introduced  is  between  the  glory  of  the  Mosaic  dis- 
pensation as  compared  with  the  Gospel.  It  is  not 
the  Decalogue  which  is  to  be  "done  away,"  but  the 
"glory"  of  the  former  ministration,  which  must  be 
lost  before  the  surpassing  glory  of  the  later  one. 
Read  again  the  passage  and  its  contexts. 

These  passages  form  the  stronghold  of  the  No- 
Sabbath  theory  in  the  New  Testaaient.  We  leave 
them  without  further  remark,  pausing  to  call  the  at- 
tention of  the  reader  to  the  utter  ruin  which  this 
theory  Avorks  in  the  realm  of  moral  obligation  : 

^  Ttli  iind  8th  vprso9. 


NO-SABBATHI8M,    N.    T.  45 

1.  If  the  Decalogue  was  abolished  by  the  death 
of  Christ,  then  Christ  by  his  death  prevented  the 
possibility  of  sin,  to  redeem  man  from  which,  he 
died. 

2.  "Sin  is  not  imputed  where  there  is  no  law,^ 
hence  the  consciousness  of  sin  which  men  feel  under 
the  claims  of  the  gospel  is  a  mockery,  and  all  faith 
in  Christ  is  but  a  farce.  It  only  increases  the  diffi- 
culty to  say  that  the  law  is  written  in  the  hearts  of 
believers.     If  that  be  true,  then  : 

3.  None  but  believers  in  Christ  can  be  convicted 
of  sin,  for  no  others  can  know  the  law  which  convicts 
of  sin.  Therefore  those  who  reject  Christ,  thereby 
become,  at  least  negatively,  righteous  by  refusing  to 
come  where  they  can  be  convicted  of  sin.  Thus 
does  the  No-Sabbath  theory  make  infidelit}^  better 
than  belief,  and  rejection  of  Christ  the  only  means  of 
salvation.  It  leads  to  endless  absurdities,  and  the 
overthrow  of  all  moral  government.  It  contradicts 
the  plain  words  of  God,  and  puts  darkness  for  light. 
Its  fruitage  in  human  life  has  been  only  bitterness 
and  ashes. 

i  Rom.  V.  13. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

CHANGE  OF  THE  DAY  THEORY. 

The  Puritan  branch  of  Protestants  claims  that  the 
Sabbath  has  been  changed,  by  divine  authority,  from 
the  seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the  week.  This 
theory  is  based  upon  the  assumption  that  the  Sab- 
bath institution  is  a  separate  thing  from  the  Sabbath 
day,  and  hence  that  the  Sabbath  law  may  be  applied 
to  any  seventh  portion  of  time.  In  opposition  to 
this  theory  it  has  been  shoAvn  : 

1.  That  the  Sabbath  law  and  the  Sabbath  day  are 
inseparable,  and  that  the  Sabbatic  institution  is  the 
result  of  obedience  to  the  Sabbath  law,  and  ceases 
to  exist  when  that  law  is  broken. 

2.  That  there  could  have  been  no  Sabbath  if  God 
had  not  rested  on  a  definite  day,  for  a  definite  purpose, 
which  no  other  day  could  answer.  Having  rested  on 
a  definite  day,  he  blessed  and  sanctified  a  definite  day, 
and  thus  made  it  the  Sab1)ath.  To  say  that  the  Sab- 
bath is  only  an  indefinite  seventh  part  of  time,  is  to 
say  that  God  rested  on  an  indefinite  seventh  part  of 

46 


CHANGE  OF  THE  DAY  THEORY.         47 

time,  and  blessed  an  indefinite  seventh  part  of  time, 
all  of  which  is  illogical  and  unscriptural.  This  theo- 
ry also  "  begs  the  question  "  by  adhering  to  the  septen- 
ary division  of  time,  and  rejecting  the  definite  day. 
Upon  such  an  illogical  assumption  the  whole  theory 
of  a  change  of  the  Sabbath  is  based.  Nevertheless 
we  shall  examine  the  reasons  offered  in  its  support 
in  detail.     They  are  as  follows  : 

1.  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week. 

2.  The  apostles  met  on  that  day  for  public  wor- 
ship, and  to  commemorate  his  resurrection. 

The  first  reason  is  usually  separated  into  the  fol- 
lowing propositions  : 

(a)  Redemption  is  a  greater  work  than  creation. 

(h)  Redemption  was  completed  at  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ. 

(c)  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week. 

Conclusion.  Therefore,  since  the  resurrection,  the 
Sabbath  law  applies  to  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
and  not  to  the  seventh. 

It  were  answer  enough  to  the  alcove  theor}^  to 
suo^orest  that  the  conclusion  is  not  a  leo:itimate  deduc- 
tion  from  the  premises.  Indeed,  the  premises  over- 
throw the   conclusion ;    for,    if   "  redemption "  is  a 


48  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

ofreater  work  than  ''  creation "  and  different,  then 
that  Avhich  was  only  sufficient  to  commemorate  crea- 
tion cannot  commemorate  redemption.  Different 
works  must  be  differently  commemorated,  and  the 
greater  cannot  be  commemorated  by  that  w^hich  only 
measures  the  less.  Again,  the  seventh  day  can  only 
cease  to  be  sacred,  and  hence  to  be  the  Sabbath, 
when  the  causes  which  make  it  the  Sabbath  shall 
cease  to  exist.  This  can  never  be,  since  those  causes 
were  the  words  and  acts  of  the  infinite  Jehovah. 

These  propositions  are  equally  unsound  when  con- 
sidered separately.  The  first  one,  in  saying  that 
"Redemption  is  a  greater  work  than  creation,"  as- 
sumes that  finite  man  can  measure  the  work  of 
"Creation,"  and  comprehend  the  goodness,  power 
and  wisdom  of  the  Infinite  One  as  therein  displayed  ; 
that  he  can  look  into  and  understand  the  work  of 
Redemption  as  the  angels  desired  to  do,  but  were  not 
able  ;  can  comprehend  the  infinite  love  and  mercy  of 
God  as  wrought  out  in  that  plan,  and  having  thus 
comprehended  and  measured  two  infinite  works,  can 
compare  one  with  the  other,  and  decide  which  of 
them  is  the  r/reater  infinity.  Such  presumption  and 
want  of  logic  combine  to  crush  the  proposition  which 
contains  them. 

The  second  proposition  asserts  that  "  Redemption 
was  completed  at  the  resurrection  [)f  Christ."     This 


CHANGE  OF  THE  DAY  THEORY.         49 

is  faulty  in  point  of  fact.  The  work  of  redemption 
began  witii  the  advent  of  sin.  Christ  was  as  a  lamb 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  ^  The  tirst 
sacrifice  that  smoked  on  the  altars  of  Eden  told  of  re- 
demption. The  work  of  the  Redeemer  will  continue 
until,  as  Judge  of  men,  he  shall  put  all  things  under 
his  feet,  and  deliver  up  the  kingdom  unto  his  Father. 
Instead  of  ceasing  the  work  at  his  resurrection, 
Christ  ascended  to  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  to 
be  our  intercessor,  until,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  he 
shall  deliver  the  redeemed  and  glorified  universe  up 
to  God. 2  If  any  one  point  marks  the  close  of  the 
earth-life  of  Christ  as  Redeemer  among  men,  it  is  the 
hour  of  his  death,  when  he  cried,  "it  is  finished," 
and  died.  ^     Hence  the  second  proposition 'fails. 

The  third  proposition — "Christ  rose  from  the 
grave  on  the  first  day  of  the  week" — has  been  ac- 
cepted without  question  by  the  majority  of  those 
who  will  read  these  pages.  Xeither  the  fact  of  the 
resurrection,  nor  the  time  when  it  occurred,  has  any 
logical  connection  with  the  Sabbath  question,  or 
rightful  place  in  the  Sabbath  argument ;  but  since 
the  public  mind  associates  the  two  questions,  it  is 
needful  to  pass  this  third  proposition  under  a  careful 
review  in  order  that  the  reader  may  see  on  what 
sandy  grounds  the  popular  theory  rests. 

iRev.  xiii.  8.       ^1  Corinthians  xv.  24—29.        ^  john  xix.  30. 
4 


50  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

TIME    OF    CHRIST'S    RESURRECTION. 

Before  taking  up  the  historic  accounts  of  the  resur- 
rection by  the  evangelists,  certain  outlying  facts  need 
to  be  examined.  Christ  uttered  an  important  proph- 
ecy concerning  this  matter  in  the  tirelfth  chapter  of 
Matthew, 1  which  reads  as  follows  : 

"  Then  certain  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  answered 
him,   saying ;  Master,  we  would  see  a  sign  from  thee." 

"  But  he  answered  and  said  unto  them,  an  evil  and  adul- 
terous generation  seeketh  after  a  sign,  and  there  shall  no 
sign  be  given  to  it,  but  the  sign  of  Jonah  the  prophet." 

"  For  as  .Jonah  was  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the 
belly  of  the  whale  :  so  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  three  days 
and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth." 

The  circumstances  forbid  all  indefiniteness  of  ex- 
pression. It  is  a  case  in  which  Christ  oft'ers  to  his 
enemies  a  test  involving  not  simply  the  truthfulness 
of  his  words,  but  the  proof  that  he  w^as  the  Son  of 
God.  In  keeping  wdth  this  thought;  the  language 
respecting  the  time  is  carefully  and  exactly  w^orded. 

The  Greek  says  ; 

'OcTTrep  7a/3  riv  'Icoya?  iv  ry  KocXia  rod  Ktjrovf;  rpeU 
rj/jL€pa<;  Kal  rpel^;  vi)KTa<^ ,ovrw<^  ecrrai  6  vi6<;  rov  avOpoo- 
TTOV  iv  rfi  KapBla  rrj^  7/;?  rpeU  ijf^epai;  Kal  rpeU  vvKTa<;. 

The  Latin  says  : 

1 38 — 41st  verses. 


TIME  OF  Christ's  resurrection.  51 

"  Sicut  enim  fuit  Jonas  in  ventre  ceti  tres  dies  et  tres 
noctes :  sic  erit  Fillius  hominis  in  eorde  terrae  tres  dies 
et  tres  noctes." 

The  original  account  in  Jonah ^  reads  as  follows  : 

"  And  Jonah  was  in  the  belly  of  the  fish  three  days  and 
three  nights." 

The  Greek  of  the  Septuagint,  says  : 

Kal  TjV  'Iwm?  €V  rfj  KOiXla  rod  K7]tov(;  rpek  rj/nepaf; 
fcal  rpel^  vv /era's' 

The  Hebrew  is  in  the  same  construction  and 
equally  definite.  It  is  omitted  for  want  of  Hebrew 
type. 

In  this  prophecy  one  point  is  unmistakably  es- 
tablished, namely :  the  length  of  the  time  during 
which  Christ  must  remain  in  the  grave.  This  forms 
the  basis  for  investigation. 

The  time  when  Christ  was  entombed  is  equally 
clear  and  definite.     Matthew  ^  says  : 

"  And  when  even  was  come,  there  came  a  rich  man  from 
Arimathea  named  Joseph,  who  also  himself  was  Jesus' 
disciple." 

"This  man  went  to  Pilate  and  asked  for  the  body  of 
Jesus.     Then  Pilate  commanded  it  to  be  given  up. 

"And  Joseph  took  the  body,  and  wrapped  it  in  a  clean 
linen  cloth,  and  laid  it  in  his  own  new  tomb  which  he  had 
hewn  out  in  the  rock  ;  and  he  rolled  a  great  stone  to  the 
door  of  the  tomb  and  departed." 

The  Greek  of    the   passage  which    refers  to  the 
M.  17.  2xxvii.  57— 61. 


52  SABBATH   AND    SUNDAY. 

time,  is  :  'O-^/rta?  Be  yevofj,6V7]<;,  literally,  "  when  it  was 
late."  John  corroborates  the  words  of  Matthew  and 
shows  ^  that  it  was  late  in  the  day,  just  before  the 
setting  of  the  sun,  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  laid 
in  the  grave.  By  the  words  of  his  own  prophecy, 
then,  he  must  have  risen  at  an  hour  in  the  day  corres- 
ponding to  the  hour  of  his  entombment.  Thus  two 
points  are  established,  namely  :  the  time  of  the  day 
when  the  resurrection  must  occur,  late  in  the  day, 
and  the  length  of  time  which  must  intervene  between 
the  entombment  and  the  resurrection,  three  days  and 
three  nights.  We  are  now  prepared  to  examine  the 
history  of  the  resurrection  as  given  by  the  evan- 
gelists. 

Three  of  the  evangelists  speak  of  the  resurrection 
only  in  general  terms,  giving  neither  the  time  when 
it  occurred,  nor  the  circumstances  attending  it. 
John  says : ^ 

"Now  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  cometh  Mary 
Magdalene  early,  while  it  was  yet  dark,  unto  the  tomb,  and 
seeth  the  stone  taken  away  from  the  tomb,"  etc. 

Luke  says  :^ 

"  But  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  at  early  dawn,  they 
came  unto  the  tomb,  bringing  the  spices  which  they  had 
prepared." 

ixix.  31,  38,  42. 

^xx.  1. 

3  xxiv.  1—3 


TIME  OF  Christ's  reslrrectiox.  53 

"  And  they  found  the  stone  rolled  away  from  the  tomb." 
"  And  they  entered  in,  and  found  not  the  body  of  the 
Lord  Jesus." 

Mark  says  :  ^ 

"And  when  the  Sabbath  was  past,  Mary  Magdalene 
and  Mary  the  Mother  of  James,  and  Salome,  bought 
spices,  that  they  might  come  and  annoint  him." 

"And  very  early  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  they 
come  to  the  tomb  when  the  sun  was  risen." 

These  accounts  teach  nothing  more  than  the  fact 
that  when  the  parties  mentioned  visited  the  sepul- 
chre, they  found  it  empty\  Christ  had  risen  and 
gone.  But  Matthew  gives  an  account  quite  different, 
and  more  definite  ;  one  which  tells  of  a  visit  previous 
to  the  one  spoken  of  l)y  the  other  three  writers  just 
examined.     The  following  is  the  account  .-^ 

Now  late  on  the  Sabbath-day,  as  it  began  to  dawn 
toward  the  first  day  of  the  week  came  Mary  Magdalene, 
and  the  other  Mary  to  see  the  sepulchre." 

"  And  behold  there  was  3  a  great  earthquake;  for  an 
angel  of  the  Lord  descended  from  heaven,  and  came  and 
rolled  away  the  stone,  and  sat  upon  it." 

"  His  appearance  was  as  lightning  and  his  raiment  white 
as  snow." 

"  And  for  fear  of  him  the  watchers  did  quake,  and  be- 
came as  dead  men.'' 

ixvi.  2. 

^xxviii.  1-S. 

3 Margin,  "had  been";  Greek,  iy^v^ro 


54  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

"And  the  angel  answered  and  said  unto  the  women, 
Fear  not  ye  ;  for  I  know  that  ye  seek  Jesus  which  hath 
been  crucified." 

"  He  is  not  here  ;  for  he  is  risen  even  as  he  said,  come, 
see  the  place  where  the  Lord  lay  ;  "  etc. 

Here  is  an  account  minute  in  details  respecting 
both  the  time  of  the  resurrection,  and  the  circum- 
stances connected  with  it.  It  agrees  in  all  particu- 
lars with  the  recjuirements  of  the  prophecy  of  Christ 
and  the  time  of  his  entombment.  The  opening  clause 
of  the  twenty-eighth  chapter  fixes  the  time,  "Late 
in  the  Sabbath."^     The  Sabbath  dosed  at  sunset. 

This  point  of  time  exactly  corresponds  to  the  hour 
of  the  entom]:>ment.  No  amount  of  "  surmising ' 
or  "supposing"  can  change  this  plain  statement. 
If  the  exeo^etical  arscument  be  souo:ht  from  the  con- 
struction  of  the  Greek  it  is  equally  as  plain  and 
strong.  The  possessive  idea  denoted  by  the  geni- 
tive necessitates  that  the  point  of  time  denoted  by 
6^^r6  be  contained  within  the  time  denoted  l)y  the 
noun.  So  here,  aa/S/Sdrcov  holds  6^fre  within  its 
limits,  '0^fr€,  when  constructed  with  a  verb  in  the 
infinitive  may  sometimes  mean  "  after,"  in  the  sense 
of  "too  late,"  when  referring  to  an  action.  But  in 
the  case  under  consideration  it  can  not  thus  mean. 
No  commentator  has  attempted  to  tlius  interpret  this 


TIME  OF  Christ's  resurrection.  55 

passage  except  upon  the  assumption  or  upon  the 
SKppositio/i  that  Matthew  meant  something  which  he 
did  not  say,  and  that  his  account  must  be  forced  to 
agree  with  the  other  three,  and  thus  give  some 
shadow  of  support  to  an  inferential  "harmony." 
Nor  is  the  word  translated  "dawn"  opposed  to  the 
view  here  expressed.  It  is  iincficocrKova-r)  from 
^E7n(f)(o(TKco,  This  is  used  but  once,  besides  this, 
in  the  New  Testament.  That  use  is  by  Luke,^  where 
the  Passover  Sabbath  folio winsr  the  crucifixion  is 
said  to  "draAV  on."  Here  the  term  is  used  concern- 
ing the  da}^  closing  at  sunset.  This  is  a  natural  and 
legitimate  translation  of  the  word,  and  there  is  no 
reason  why  it  should  not  be  thus  rendered  in  Mat- 
thew xxviii.  1.  Such  a  rendering  only,  agrees  with 
the  facts.  The  Sabbath  closed  at  sunset  on  the 
seventh  day  of  the  week.  At  the  same  hour  the  first 
day  of  the  week  "drew  on,"  "came  in  sight," 
"  began  to  appear."  Translators  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment have  been  more  truthful  to  the  correct  render- 
ing than  interpreters  have  been  to  the  correct  exe- 
gesis, as  the  following  facts  testify  : 

The  Syriac  Peshito  version,  renders  this  passage, 
"In  the  evening  of  the  Sabbath."  The  Latin  of  the 
Vulgate  renders  it  by  the  same  words.     Beza's  Latin 

ixxiii,  54. 


56  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

translation  has  the  same.  Tyndale's  translation  says  : 
"  The  Sa])bath-day  at  even."  Coverdale's  translation 
reads.  "  Upon  the  evening  of  the  Sabbath  holy 
day."  Cranmer's,  the  Genevan,  and  the  Bishop's 
versions,  all  render  it,  "In  the  latter  end  of  the  Sab- 
bath-day." The  Greek  is  literally — '*  Late  in  the 
Sabbath."  Rotherhani's  Critically  Emphasized  Ver- 
sion, says:  "And  late  in  [the]  week,  when  it  was 
on  the  point  of  dawninsf  into  [the]  the  first  of  [the] 
week,"  etc.  Alford — Greek  Gospels — acknowledges 
the  important  fact,  but  attempts  to  make  Matthew 
accord  with  the  other  evangelists  by  "  supposing " 
that  he  meant  something  different  from  what  he  says. 
These  are  Alford's  words. 

'*  There  is  some  little  difficulty  here,  because  the  end 
of  the  Sabbath  (and  of  the  week)  locfs  at  simset  the  night 
before.  It  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  Matthew  means 
the  evening  of  the  Sabbath,  though  eTre^wo-Ke  is  used  of 
the  day  beginning  at  sunset.^  It  is  best  to  interpret  a 
doubtful  expression  in  unison  with  other  testimonies,  and 
to  suppose  that  here  both  the  daij  and  the  breaking  of  the 
day.,  are  taken  in  their  natural.^  not  in  their  Jeivish  sense. 

On  Luke  xxiii.  54,  Alford  says  :  ^ 

"  i7recf>o)a-K€v,  '  dreio  on^  a  natural  word,  used  of  the 
conventional  (Jewish)  day  beginning  at  sunset.  There  is 
no  reference  to  the  lighting  of  candles  in  the  evening,  or 

1  Luke  xxiii.  .54,  and  note. 

2  Greek  Gospels. 


TIME  OF  Christ's  resurrection.  57 

on  the  Sabbath.  Lightfoot  (in  loc.)  has  shown  that 
such  a  use  of  the  word  was  common  among  the  Jews  who 
called  the  evening  (the  beginning)  of  a  day,  'light.'  " 

The  italics  in  the  abo'/e  are  Alford's.  His  scholar- 
ship is  far  better  than  his  eflbrt  to  make  Matthew's 
account  harmonize  with  the  rest  of  the  Evangelists. 
His  words  as  a  scholar,  forbid  his  supposition  as  a 
theologian.  There  is  nothing  "  doubtful "  in  the 
meaning  of  Matt,  xxviii.  1,  when  it  is  allowed  to  say 
what  it  does  say. 

About  1865,  the  writer  published  the  proposition 
that  Christ's  entombment  occurred  on  the  eveninor  of 
the  fourth  day  of  the  week,  and  his  resurrection  be- 
fore the  close  of  the  Sabbath,  and  not  upon  the  first  day 
of  the  week.  The  proposition  was  met  with  a  storm 
of  criticism  by  some,  and  with  careful  consideration 
by  others.  This  interpretation  has  gained  ground 
steadily,  until  the  highest  authorities  in  New  Testa- 
ment criticism  now  support  it.  The  revisers  of  the 
Ntiw  Testament  have  given  it  absolute  sanction,  by 
translating  as  above.  To  place  the  matter  still  firther 
beyond  dispute  there  has  lately  appeared  a  "  Greek- 
English  Lexicon  of  the  New  Testament^  Grimni's 
wake's  Clavis  JSTovi  Testamenti.  Translated,  Re- 
vised and  Enlarged,  by  Joseph  Henry  Thayer,  D.  D., 
Bussey  Professor  of  New  Testament  Criticism  and 


58  SABBATH   AND    SUNDAY. 

Interpretation  in  the  Divinity  School  of  Harvard 
University  "  :  in  which  the  construction  of  ]Matthew 
xxviii.  1  is  fully  discussed.  After  giving  the  refer- 
ences which  have  been  adduced  in  support  of  the 
translation  "after  the  Sabbath,"  Prof.   Thayer  says  : 

''But  an  examination  of  the  instances  just  cited  (and 
others)  will  show  that  thev  fail  to  sustain  the  rendering 
after  (although  it  is  recognized  by  Passow,  Pape,  Schen- 
kel  and  other  lexicographers)  :  opk,  followed  by  a  geni- 
tive, seems  always  to  h^  partitive,  denoting  late  in  the 
period  specified  by  the  genitive,  (and  consequently 
still  belonging  to  it, )  cf.  B.  sec.  132,  7  Rem.  Kuehner 
sec.  414,  0  c>  /?.  Hence  in  Matthew  [1.  c]  late  on  the 
Sabbath.  Keim.  iii.  p.  552,  seq.  [Eng.  trans,  vi.  303, 
seq.]  endeavors  to  relieve  the  passage  differently  (by 
adopting  the  Vulg.,  vespere  Sahhati :  on  the  evening  of 
the  Sabbath),  but  without  success.  Compare  Keil,  Com. 
ueber  Matt.  Ad  loc.'' 

Thus  is  the  weight  of  past  and  present  scholarship 
thrown  in  favor  of  the  explanation  here  given.  This 
explanation  shows  that  the  prophecy  of  Christ,  and 
the  accounts  of  the  entombment,  and  of  the  resurrec- 
tion agree  with  extreme  fidelity.  And  the  accounts 
of  the  Evangelists  agree  w^ith  each  other  when  the 
fact  is  thus  recognized  that,  in  the  opening  of 
the  twenty-eighth  chapter,  Matthew  speaks  of  the 
first  visit  to  the  sepulchre  "late  in  the  Sabbath,"  to 
which  visit  the  other  evangelists  do  not  refer ;  they 


TIME  OF  Christ's  resurrection.  59 

describe  a  second  visit  made  early  on  the  following 
mornino^.  Matthew's  account  of  the  first  visit  evi- 
dently  closes  with  the  eighth  verse,  and  in  the  ninth 
he  passes  to  the  scenes  of  the  next  morning.  Thus 
the  following  conclusions  are  fixed. 

Christ  was  crucified  and  entombed  on  the  fourth 
day  of  the  week^  commonly  called  Wednesday.  He 
lay  in  the  grave  ''three  days  and  tJiree  niglits''  and 
rose ''late  in  the  Sabbath,''  at  an  hour  correspond- 
ing with  the  hour  of  his  entombment,  at  ichich  time 
two  of  the  luomen  came  to  see  the  sepulchre. 

There  is  certain  circumstantial  evidence  which 
corroborates  these  conclusions  : 

1.  Since  Christ  gave  the  length  of  time  he  should 
lie  in  the  grave  as  a  sign  of  his  Messiahship,  any 
failure  in  the  fulfillment  of  that  sign  would  have  been 
noted  and  published  by  his  enemies.  The  fact  that 
no  such  charge  has  ever  been  made,  and  only  the 
puerile  story  of  the  stealing  of  the  body  invented, 
is  evidence  that  the  prophecy  was  exactly  fulfilled. 

2.  On  the  day  following  the  crucifixion  the  Jews 
went  to  Pilate,  sought  a  guard  for  the  tomb  for  three 
days,  and  attended  to  the  setting  of  it.  This  they 
would  not  have  done  on  the  weekly  Sabbath ;  but 
they  would  not  shrink  from  doing  it  on  the  Passover 
Sabbath  which  they  observed  less  strictly. 


60  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

3.  The  guard  was  set  to  cover  a  time  three  vclays 
from  the  entombment.  Until  that  time  expired  not 
even  the  disciples,  much  less  two  lone  women,  would 
attempt  to  reach  the  tomb  to  look  after  the  body. 
Henre  the  women  spoken  of  in  Matthew  tioenty- 
eighth^  came  to  the  tomb  with  the  evident  design  of 
being  present  the  moment  the  guard  should  be  re- 
moved. 

On  the  other  hand  if  the  popular  theory  be  correct, 
Christ  was  laid  in  the  grave  late  on  the  sixth  day  of 
the  week,  the  guard  was  set  on  the  seventh  day,  and 
on  that  same  day,  scarcely  twenty-four  hours  after 
the  entombment  the  women  are  found  at  the  sepul- 
chre, and  Christ  is  risen.  Such  conclusions  contra- 
dict the  plain  statements  of  the  Word,  and  are  out 
of  accord  with  all  the  circumstances  in  the  case.  A 
circumstantial  "objection  "  to  the  explanation  here 
given  is  made  on  the  claim  that  the  two  women  would 
not  be  likely  to  make  a  second  visit  to  the  sepulchre 
on  the  followin^:  mornin<j:.  ,  The  reverse  is  the  most 
natural  conclusion.  A  second  visit  was  necessary  to 
confirm  the  hopes  which  the  strange  scenes  of  the 
previous  evening  had  awakened.  Hence  their  eager- 
ness ;  and  taking  other  witnesses,  they  hasten  "while 
it  was  yet  dark  "  to  come  again  to  the  sacred  spot  to  see 
if  indeed  their  Lord  had  risen.     This  is  farther  con- 


TIME  OF  Christ's  resurrection.  ()1 

firmed  by  the  fact  already  indicated,  that  the  eighth 
verse  of  Matthew  twenty-eighth  seems  to  close  the 
account  of  the  first  visit ;  while  from  the  ninth  verse 
to  the  close  of  the  chapter  we  have  in  four  se})arate 
paragraphs,  the  whole  history  of  the  circmnstances 
of  the  next  morning  and  of  the  entire  time  up  to 
the  Ascension  of  Christ,  crowded  into  eleven  verses. 
An  indirect  objection  to  this  view  of  the  time  of 
the  resurrection  is  based  on  the  scenes  connected 
with  Christ's  appearance  to  the  two  disciples,  on  the 
way  to  Emmaus,  on  the  day  after  his  resurrection. 
It  is  claimed  that  Luke  xxiv.  21,  indicates  the  burial 
on  Friday  and  the  resurrection  on  Sunday.  Ex- 
amining this  chapter  we  find,^  that  they  were  talking 
of  "All  these  things  which  had  JiajjpenecL''  In  the 
21st  verse,  the  disciples  answer  Christ: 

"  Yea,  and  beside  all  this,  it  is  now  the  third  day  since 
these  things  came  to  pass." 

Now  it  is  very  clear  that  conversation  concerning 
the  reported  resurrection  must  have  included  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  important  fiict  that  after  all  else  had 
occurred,  and  Christ  was  buried,  a  guard  had  been 
set  to  prevent  his  resurrection.  That  was  the  last 
act  iii  the  scenes  of  his  death  and  burial.  If  the 
hmguage  of  the  two  disciples  in  Luke  xxiv.  21,  be 
1  14th  verse. 


62  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

taken  absolutely,  then  according  to  the  explanation  we 
have  given  of  the  time  of  the  entombment  and  the 
setting  of  the  guard,  Friday  would  have  been  the  first 
day  "since"  the  placing  of  the  guard,  for  the  guard 
was  set  on  Thursday ,  and  Sunday  would  have  been 
the  third  day  since  all  these  things  happened.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  the  Eomish  tradition  of  the  burial 
on  Friday,  and  the  placing  of  the  guard  on  the  Sab- 
bath, be  accepted,  there  is  no  possibility  of  making 
Sunday  more  than  ihe  first  day  "  since  "  these  things 
were  done. 

The  obvious  meaning  of  Luke  xxiv.  21,  is  this. 
"The  time  is  now  fully  up  since  the  final  efibrt  was 
made  to  prevent  a  resurrection,  and  this  morning  the 
women  reported  that  in  spite  of  all  efforts  to  the  con- 
trary, it  had  actually  taken  place."  Nevertheless  we 
are  willing,  so  far  as  the  argument  is  concerned,  that 
the  language  should  be  interpreted  with  the  most  ab- 
solute exactness  ;  which  being  done,  our  explanation 
of  the  time  of  the  entombment  and  of  the  resur- 
rection is  the  only  one  with  which  it  can  be  made  to 
accord. 

It  is  now  pertinent  to  group  together  these  ob- 
jections to  the  popular  notion  concerning  the  resur- 
rection. 

1.  There  is  nowhere  in  the  Bible  any  statement 
that  Christ  rose  on  the  first  dav  of  the  week. 


TIME  OF  Christ's  resurrection.  63 

2.  The  popular  claim  contradicts  the  plain  words 
of  Matthew  who  alone  gives  the  time  when  the  resur- 
rection occurred. 

3.  The  claim  that  Christ  was  entombed  late  on 
the  sixth  day  of  the  week  disagrees  entirely  with 
the  express  conditions  laid  down  by  Christ  in  his 
prophetic  words  concerning  the  time  he  should  lie  in 
the  grave  ;  therefore  : 

4.  If  the  popular  theory  be  corrrct,  Christ's  proph- 
ecy was  not  fulfilled,  and,  by  his  own  words,  he  is 
proven  to  have  been  an  impostor.  The  circum- 
stances connected  with  the  burial  and  resurrection 
must  also  be  tortured  into  unnatural  relations  and 
forced  harmony.  We  can  therefore  only  repeat  the 
conclusion  that  Christ  did  not  rise  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week.  Thus,  step  by  step,  the  assumptions  in 
favor  of  a  change  of  the  Sabbath,  based  upon  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  are  swept  away. 


CHAPTER  YI. 
Christ's  example  conceening  the  first  day  of 

THE    WEEK. 

The  remainino^  effort  at  ai'oument  in  favor  of  the 
change,  is  predicated  upon  the  chiim  that  Christ  and 
his  apostles  authorized  a  change  of  the  day,  by  their 
example  in  observing  the  first  day  of  the  week.  It 
is  hence  necessary  to  examine  the  passages  which  are 
quoted  in  favor  of  such  observance,  in  their  order, 
and  with  their  contexts. 

The  first  passage  is  found  in  John  xx.  19 — 23. 
All  our  readers  have  the  "common  version"  and  many 
of  them  have  others,  and  the  original  from  which  to 
make  their  own.  To  aid  in  a  better  understanding: 
of  the  text  we  present  the  Revised  Version,  the 
corrected  translation  as  oriven  in  Lano^e's  Commen- 
tary,  and  also  the  "Critically  Emphasized  Transla- 
tion" of  Joseph  B.  Rotherham.  (Bagster,  London, 
1878.)      These  are  as  follows  : 

"  When  therefore  it  was  evening,  on  that  da}^  the  first 
day  of  the  week,  and  when  the  doors  were  shut  wliere  the 
disciples  were,  for  fear  of  the  Jews,  Jesus  came  and 
stood  in  the  midst,  and   saith  unto  them,  peace   be  unto 

64 


Christ's  example.  65 

you.  And  when  he  had  said  this,  he  showed  unto  them 
his  hands  and  his  side.  The  disciples  therefore  were  glad, 
when  they  saw  the  Lord.  Jesus  therefore  said  to  them 
again,  peace  he  unto  you  :  as  the  Father  hath  sent  me, 
even  so  send  I  you.  And  when  he  had  said  this,  he 
breathed  on  them,  and  saith  unto  them.  Receive  ye  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  whosesoever  sins  j^e  forgive,  they  are  for- 
given unto  them  ;  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are 
retained." ^ 

•'  When,  therefore,  it  was  evening  on  that  day,  the  first 
of  the  week,  and  the  doors  had  been  shut,  or,  the  doors 
being  shut,  where  the  disciples  were  for  fear  of  the  Jews, 
came  Jesus  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and  saith  unto  them, 
Peace  he  unto  you.  And  having  said  this,  he  showed  unto 
them  both  his  hands  and  his  side.  The  disciples  therefore 
were  glad  when  they  saw  the  Lord.  Then  he  said  to  them 
again.  Peace  he  unto  you.  As  the  Father  hath  sent  me, 
even  so  send  I  you.  And  when  he  had  said  this,  he 
breathed  on  theni^  and  saith  unto  them.  Receive  Holy 
Spirit.  Whosesoever  sins  ye  remit,  they  have  been  remit- 
ted ;  and  whosesoever  ye  retain,  they  have  been  re- 
tained." ■" 

In  the  following,  the  italic  type  indicates  the 
Greek  emphasis,  and  not  "supplied  words,"  as  in 
the  ordinary  version  ;  the  brackets  denote  supplied 
words  : 

''It  being  late,   therefore,   on  that  day — the  first  of 
[the]  week — and  the  doors  having  been  fastened  where 
^  Revised  Version.      '-Lange. 
5 


QQ  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

the  disciples  were,  by  reason  of  the  fear  of  the  Jews, 
Jesus  came  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and  says  to  them, 
Peace  to  yon  !  and  this  saying,  he  pointed  out  both  [his] 
hands  and  [his]  side  to  them.  The  disciples,  therefore, 
rejoiced^  seeing  the  Lord  !  He  said  to  them  again,  there- 
fore, Peace  to  you  !  According  as  the  Father  has  sent 
me  forth,  I  also  send  you.  And  this  saying  he  breathed 
strongly,  and  says  to  them,  Peceive  ye  Holy  Spirit ! 
Whosesoever  sins  ye  may  remit,  they  have  been  remitted 
unto  them  :  whosesoever  ye  may  be  retaining,  they  have 
been  retained."  ^ 

Such  is  the  brief  history  of  the  appearing  of 
Christ  to  his  disciples  on  the  evening  after  the  day 
on  which  his  resurrection  had  become  known.  It  is 
claimed  that  this  was  a  meeting  of  the  disciples  to 
commemorate,  sabbatically,  the  resurrection.  Ob- 
serve, first  that  no  such  thing  is  either  said  or  im- 
plied in  the  text.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  distinctly 
stated  that  they  w^ere  secreted,  with  fastened  doors, 
"for  fear  of  the  Jews."  But  let  us  look  more  fully 
into  the  doings  of  that  day.  From  Luke  (24th  chap- 
ter) we  have  seen  that  wdien  the  women  told  the 
circumstances  of  the  morning  to  the  eleven  disciples 
■'their  words  seemed  as  idle  tales,  and  they  believed 
them  not." 

In  the  same  chapter  it  is  related  that  two  of  the 
disciples  journeyed  to  Emmaus,  seven  and  one-half 

^  Rotherhani. 


chkist's  example.  67 

miles,  during  that  day.  Christ  joined  them  on  the 
journey,  and  at  supper  revealed  himself  to  them. 
They,  wondering  and  rejoicing,  returned  to  Jerusa- 
lem. While  they  related  their  story  to  the  other 
disciples,  Christ  came.  Even  then  they  would  not 
believe  until  he  explained  his  former  words  con- 
cerning himself.  Thus  it  is  clear  that  they  did  not 
believe  in  his  resurrection  until  late  in  the  evening. 
They  could  not  have  been  together  to  celebrate  an 
event  in  which  they  did  not  believe.  It  was  40 
cure  this  unbelief,  to  jpvove  his  resurrection  and 
not  to  celebrate  it,  that  Christ  came.  The  hatred 
which  raged  against  the  disciples  necessitated  that 
they  should  secrete  themselves  from  the  fury  of  the 
Jews.  On  the  evening  in  question  they  were  thus 
hidden  away,  in  despondency,  sorrow,  and  doubt. 
Had  this  been  a  meeting  held  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
stituting so  radical  a  change  in  a  practice  so  widely 
affecting  Christian  life,  and  based  upon  a  fact  not 
until  then  beli'eved,  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that 
no  mention  would  be  made  of  the  fact  by  the  risen 
Saviour  who  alone  had  power  to  make  a  change  if  one 
were  possible.  His  silence  disproves  the  claim.  It 
is  an  important  fact  also  that  the  best  commentators, 
like  Alford,  Meyer,  Schaff,  Lange,  andEUicott,  make 
no  eflfort  to  draw  from  this  Dassasfe  anv  suDDort  what- 


68  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

ever  for  Sunday  observance.  It  is  only  when  men 
are  anxious  to  lind  a  Scriptural  warrant  for  observing 
Sunda}^,  that,  as  polemists,  and  not  as  commenta- 
tors, they  attempt  to  put  into  this  record  what  neither 
Christ  nor  the  Holy  Spirit,  guiding  John,  put  into 
it.  Whoever  attempts  to  make  the  passage  support 
Sunday-keeping,  has  to  assume  that  the  Spirit  left  the 
account  imperfect,  and  that  men  have  a  right  to  com- 
plete it  by  reading  "between  the  lines,"  wdmt  is  not 
written.  This  passage  has  a  still  more  important 
bearing  on  the  whole  question,  since  this  first  meeting 
for  the  purpose  of  proving  his  resurrection  was  the 
natural  and  obvious  time  for  him  to  add,  "  And  hence- 
forth you  are  to  observe  the  day  just  passed,  in  honor 
of  my  resurrection,  as  the  Sabbath  in  place  of  the 
day  before,  which  you  and  I  have  hitherto  ob- 
served." Such  words  from  Christ  would  have  put 
the  question  at  rest.  That  he  said  nothing  of  the 
kind  is  proof  that  he  meant  nothing  of  the  kind. 
And  more  :  No  writer  in  the  New  Testament  refers 
to  this  meeting  as  the  beginning  of  Sunday  observ- 
ance, or  as  authority  for  it.  The  whole  claim  was 
an  afterthought,  comparatively  modern,  to  support 
a  practice,  introduced  for  other  reasons. 

The  second  passage  which  is  claimed  in  support  of 
Sunday  ol^servance,  is  from  the  same  chapter,  John 


69 

(xx.   26).     It  is  as  follows,  and  is  more  iiidefiiiite 
than  the  one  just  considered  : 

"  And  after  eight  days,  again  his  disciples  were  within, 
and  Thomas  with  them.  Jesus  cometh,  the  doors  being 
shut,  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and  said.  Peace  be  unto 
you." 

It  is  claimed  that  this  was  the  next  first  day,  on 
the  ground  that  "  Sunday  and  Sunday  make  eight," 
and  that  the  meeting  was  again  in  honor  of  the  resur- 
rection. But  the  account  does  not  state  that  it  was 
upon  the  eighth  day,  but  "  after  eight  days."  Now 
the  English  after,  the  Latin  ^o^^,  and  the  Greek  ??ze^«, 
are  among  the  most  'positive  words  in  these  lan- 
guages ;  and  if  the  time  spoken  of  was  exact,  it 
must  have  been  upon  the  ninth  day  at  least.  If  the 
expression  is  indefinite,  in  the  sense  of  the  English 
expression  "about  eight  days  after,"  then  the  case  is 
so  much  the  worse  for  the  argument.  Admitting 
that  it  was  the  next  first  day,  there  is  no  implication 
of  any  sabbatic  character  connected  with  the  meet- 
ing. The  simple  fact  of  the  case  being  this  :  Thomas 
being  absent  from  the  former  meeting  would  not  be- 
lieve that  Christ  had  risen.  At  this  time  Thomas  is 
present,  and  is  convinced.  The  fact  that  Christ  in- 
structed them,  proves  nothing  sabbatic,  or  celebra- 
tive,  for  his  next  meeting  (see  next  chapter,)  was 


70  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

upon  a  day   when  they  were   fishings  when   he  in- 
structed them  more  fully  than  at  any  time  before. 

These  two  pavssages  constitute  the  entire  array  of 
proof,  so  called,  that  Christ  honored  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  or  taught  its  observance.  And  yet  many 
polemists,  writing  in  fiivor  of  the  change  of  the 
Sabbath,  refer  to  these  passages  as  though  they  were 
two  among  many  which  might  be  quoted  if  necessary. 
If  Christ  taught  the  observance  of  Sunday,  or  the 
change  of  the  Sabbath,  we  are  anxious  to  know  it, 
and  to  act  accordingly.  But  something  more  than 
these  two  passages,  and  the  inferences  which  are  put 
into  them — not  drawn  from  'them — is  necessary  to 
form  any  found^ition  for  setting  aside  a  plain  com- 
mand of  the  Decalogue. 

TESTIMONY  FROM  THE  BOOK  OF   ACTS. 

The  first  day  of  the  week  is  mentioned  but  once 
in  the  book  of  Acts.  Nevertheless  two  passages  are 
cited  from  the  book,  in  support  of  Sunday  obser- 
vance.    The  first  is  as  follows  : 

'•  And  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  now  come,  they 
were  all  together  in  one  place."  Acts  ii.  1. 

Surely  no  one  seeking  proof  for  the  change  of  the 
Sabbath  from  apostolic  example,  would  think  of  find- 
ing it  in  this  text.     Nothing  appears  in  the  text  or 


TESTIMONY   FROM    THE    BOOK    OF    ACTS  71 

the  contexts  to  indicate  on  what  day  of  the  week  the 
occurrences  described,  happened,  or  to  show  that 
the  passsage  has  the  remotest  connection  with  the 
Sabbath  question.  Something  must  be  read  into 
the  text,  in  order  to  make  any  mention  of  tlie  ques- 
tion before  us.  How  is  this  done  ?  After  this  man- 
ner :  ''  The  Pentecost  fell  on  the  first  day  oif  the 
week ;  God  poured  out  his  spirit  miraculously  on 
that  day,  thus  sanctifying  it,  or,  at  least  showing  it 
an  especial  ftivor."  Let  us  see  whether  the  major 
premise  of  this  proposition  is  true,  viz.  :  that  the 
Pentecost  fell  on  First  day.  It  was  a  yearly  feast, 
falling  on  the  fiftieth  day  reckoning  from  the  day 
following  the  Passover.  Thus  reckoning,  this  Pen- 
tecost would  have  fallen  on  the  first  day  of  the  week 
if  the  Saviour  had  been  crucified  on  the  sixth  day, 
and  the  Passover  been  held,  as  is  claimed,  on  the 
seventh.  We  have  already  shown  that  such  was  not 
the  case  ;  hence  the  premise  is  incorrect  in  point  of 
fact. 

We  are  by  no  means  alone  in  claiming  that  this 
Pentecost  did  not  fall  on  Sunday.  No  one  can  con- 
chide  that  it  did  fall  on  Sunday  except  by  assuming 
that  Christ  was  crucified  on  Friday,  and  that  that 
Friday  was  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month  Nisan. 
This  is  a  disputed  point.     Dr.  Schaff"  acknowledges 


72  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

that  with  reference  to  the  question  whether  this 
Pentecost  fell  on  the  8al)l)ath  or  on  the  Sunday, 
"  Opinions  are  much  divided,  and  the  arguments 
almost  equally  balanced."  Any  one  reading  the  opin- 
ions of  the  various  writers  concerning  the  day  of 
Christ's  death,  and  the  consequent  day  of  the  Pente- 
cost referred  to  in  Acts  second,  will  see  how  hopeless 
is  the  confusion  to  which  men  rush  who  are  obliged  to 
assume  important  points.  The  explanation  which  we 
have  given  of  the  time  of  the  resurrection,  and  the 
length  of  time  Christ  should  lie  in  the  grave,  both  of 
which  are  fixed  by  Matthew  (xxviii.  1,  and  xii.  40), 
makes  complete  harmony  between  Christ's  prophetic 
words,  and  their  fulfilment.  It  also  gives  a  complete 
"Harmon}^  of  the  Gospels,"  without  assuming  any- 
thing which  is  not  absolutely  stated  in  the  Gospels, 
except  that  there  were  two  visits  to  the  sepulchre. 
The  traditions  and  customs  of  the  early  church  which 
were  developed  in  post-apostolic  times,  are  of  no  val- 
ue, if  they  do  not  agree  with  the  inspired  Records. 
Hence  we  conclude  that  the  Pentecost  of  Acts  ii.  1, 
did  not  fall  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week.  But 
had  it  fallen  upon  the  first  day,  there  was  nothing 
in  this  demonstration  of  God's  spirit  which  had  ref- 
erence to  the  day  of  the  week.  It  was  the  Pentecost 
which  they   met  to   celebrate,  and  while  thus  cele- 


TESTIMONY    FROM    THE    BOOK    OF    ACTS.  73 

brating,  the  miraculous  out  pouring  came.  The 
reason  for  choosing  the  Pentecost  as  the  time  at 
which  to  manifest  thus  the  power  of  the  Spirit  is 
evident  in  the  fact  that  thousands  of  devout  men 
from  every  huid  were  there,  and  being  convinced  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity,  would  carry  that  truth  far 
and  wide  as  they  returned  home.  There  is  another 
significant  fact  which  alone  overthrows  the  popu- 
lar claim.  The  writer  of  the  passage  says  noth- 
ing concerning  the  day  of  the  week.  Had  it  been 
the  first  day,  just  adopted  by  the  apostles  as  the 
Christian  Sabbath,  it  is  not  conceivable  that  so  mark- 
ed an  occurrence  in  its  favor  would  have  been  passed 
in  utter  silence.  This  closes  the  proof  (?)  which  is 
offered  to  show  that  Christ  by  example  or  precept, 
or  the  Holy  Spirit  by  special  sanction,  taught  or  in 
any  way  authorized  the  change  of  the  Sabbath. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

EXAMPLE  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

The  history  of  the  doings  and  teachings  of  the 
apostles  is  equally  devoid  of  any  proof  in  favor  of 
the  popular  theory.  The  book  of  Acts  covers  at 
least  thirty  years  of  time  after  the  resurrection  of 
Christ.  This  is  the  period  during  which  it  is  claim- 
ed that  the  change  was  going  on  under  the  direction 
of  the  Apostles  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  Two  stubborn 
facts  oppose  this  cliiim. 

1.  The  resurrection  of  Christ  as  the  proof  of  his 
Messiahship,  is  a  prominent  theme  in  the  sermons 
which  the  apostles  preached  during  this  period. 
This  was  especially  dwelt  upon  in  the  sermon  of 
Peter  at  Pentecost,  and  many  times  thereafter. 

Such  preaching  could  not  avoid  the  discussion  of 
the  change  of  the  Sal^bath,  as  based  upon  the  resur- 
rection, if  the  chanfife  had  been  then  cfoinof  on.  This 
fact  is  the  more  significant  since  Luke,  the  writer  of 
the  ])ook  of  Acts,  is  especially  careful  to  notice  any 
compliance  with  existing  customs.  Notice  the  fol- 
lowing passages  from  his  Gospel : 
74 


EXAMPLE    OF    THE    APOSTLES.  75 

"  According  to  the  custom  of  the  priest's  office,  his  lot 
was  to  enter  into  the  temple  of  the  Lord  and  burn  in- 
cense." ^  "  And  when  the  parents  brought  in  the  child 
Jesus  that  they  might  do  concerning  him  after  the  custom 
of  the  law."  ^  "  And  he  came  to  Nazareth,  where  he  had 
been  brought  up,  and  he  entered,  as  his  custom  was,  into 
the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath-day."^  ''And  he  came 
out  and  went,  as  his  custom  was,  unto  the  Mount  of 
Olives."* 

In  the  book  of  Acts,  he  says  : 

'*  And  on  the  Sabbath-day,  we  went  forth  without  the 
gate  by  a  river  side,  where  we  supposed  there  was  a  place 
of  prayer." 5  "They  came  to  Thessalonica,  where  was 
a  synagogue  of  the  Jews;  and  Paul,  as  his  custom  was, 
went  in  unto  them."  ^ 

These  passages  show  that  it  was  characteristic  of 
Luke  to  notice  compliance  with  existing  customs, 
even  when  no  especial  interest  was  attached  to  the 
fact.  How,  then,  can  we  suppose  that  the  establish- 
ment of  a  new  custom,  so  important,  and  so  full  of 
interest  to  the  narrative,  could  be  passed  over  in 
silence. 

The  single  passage  in  which  a  reference  is  made 

to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  in  the  book  of  Acts, 

is  in  the  twentieth  chapter,  and  seventh  verse.     It  is 

as  follows  : 

li.  9.  2ii.  27.  3iv.  16. 

4xxii.39.  5xvi.  13.  6xvii.  1,2. 


76  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

"  And  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  we  were 
gathered  together  to  break  bread,  Paul  discoursed  with 
them,  intending  to  depart  on  the  morrow  and  prolonged 
his  speech  until  midnight." 

It  is  claimed  that  this  passage  indicates  a  well-un- 
derstood custom  of  sabbatizing  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week.  But  there  are  the  same  difficulties  here 
as  in  the  cases  before  examined.  Luke  is  a  careful 
writer,  and  often  speaks  of  established  customs.  The 
account  in  this  place  is  a  minute  one.  In  the  third 
verse,  and  those  following  it,  we  are  told  how  Paul 
dwelt  three  months  in  Greece,  who  accompanied  him, 
and  where  they  were  from,  who  came  with  him  on 
the  voyage  toward  Troas,  certain  of  whom  went 
before,  while  Paul  and  others  of  the  party,  Luke  in- 
cluded, remained  at  Philippi  until  after  the  days  of 
unleavened  bread  and  then  set  out  for  Troas  where 
they  arrived  after  five  da3"s'  journey  and  remained 
seven  days.  The  evening  before  they  set  out  for 
Assos,  the  inhabitants  came  in  ;  and  so  follows  the 
minute  account  of  the  meeting  and  its  attendant  cir- 
cumstances. Now  could  a  writer  so  minute  in  unim- 
portant matters,  pass  over  in  silence  the  fiict  that 
they  there  celebrated  the  new  institution  of  the 
resurrection  day,  had  such  been  the  case;  espe- 
cially when  the  day  is  mentioned?    This  is  the  more 


EXAMPLE    OF   THE    APOSTLES.  77 

wonderful  since  he  nowhere  else  even  mentions  the 
first  day  of  the  week  in  any  manner  whatever. 
According  to  the  popular  theory,  this  passage  refers 
only  to  the  evening.  If  the  day  was  observed  by 
them  as  a  Sabbath  there  nmst  have  been  religious 
services  during  the  day,  and  these  would  naturally 
be  more  prominent  than  the  evening  service ;  why 
then  should  so  careful  and  exact  a  writer  pass  over 
the  more  important  features  of  the  case  in  silence, 
and  leave  the  less  important  features  with  only  a 
vague  reference.  Such  a  claim  does  great  injustice 
to  the  scholarship  of  Luke,  saying  nothing  of  his  in- 
spiration. 

All  this  is  upon  the  popular  supposition  that  the 
meeting  was  held  on  what  is  now  called  Sunday 
evening,  and  that  the  breaking  of  bread  was  a  "  cele- 
bration of  the  Lord's  Supper."  There  are  impera- 
tive reasons  for  rejecting  both  these  interpretations. 
According  to  the  Jewish  method  of  reckoning  time, 
which  is  everywhere  used  by  the  writers  of  the  Bible, 
all  of  whom  were  Jews,  this  meeting  must  have  been 
on  the  evening  after  the  Sabbath,  on  what  is  now 
called  "  Saturday  ''  evening,  and  hence  Paul  and  his 
companions  traveled  all  the  next  day.  If  to  avoid 
this  dilemma,  the  Roman   reckoning   be  supposed, 


78  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

then  the  main  item  of  the  meeting,  viz.  :  the  "  Break- 
ing of  bread,"  took  place  after  midnight,  and  hence 
on  the  second  day  of  the  week.  Either  horn  of  this 
dilemma  destroys  whatever  of  inferential  evidence 
this  passage  might  otherwise  be  supposed  to  afford. 
The  time  when  this  meeting  was  held  is  given  by 
Conybear  and  Howson  as  follows  : 

"The  labors  of  the  early  days  of  the  week  that  was 
spent  at  Troas,  are  not  related  to  us  ;  but  conceruiug  the 
last  day  we  have  a  narrative  which  enters  into  details 
with  all  the  minuteness  of  one  of  the  gospel  histories. 
It  was  the  evening  which  succeeded  the  Jewish  Sabbath. 
On  Sunday  morning  the  vessel  was  about  to  sail."  ^ 

The  phrase  KXaaac  dprov,  which  is  translated,  "to 
break  bread  "  is  repeatedly  used  to  designate  the 
eating  of  a  common  meal.  It  is  thus  used  in  Acts  ii. 
46,  where  the  forty-fifth  and  forty-seventh  verses  show 
that  these  were  but  ordinary  meals.  So  also  in  Acts 
xxvii.  37,  the  same  terms  denote  the  common  meal 
of  a  company  of  two  hundred  and  seventy-six.  So 
far  as  the  language  or  the  circumstances  decide,  it 
may  have  been  a  common  meal,  or  a  love  feast,  or 
the  Lord's  Supper.  In  either  case  there  is  nothing 
in  the  fact  to  affect  the  day.  The  farewell  meeting 
is  sufficient  ground  for  all  that  occurred,  and  the 
1  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  chap.  xx. 


EXAMPLE    or    THE    APOSTLES.        '  79 

miraculous  restoration  of  the  young  man,  together 
with  the  farewell  meeting,  give  abundant  reason  for 
placing  the  incident  on  record.  We  have  therefore 
no  hesitancy  in  adopting  the  conclusion  that  the 
meeting  spoken  of  in  Acts  twentieth  and  seventh, 
was  an  informal  o-atherino^  of  Paul  and  his  travelinjr 
companions,  with  more  or  less  of  those  Avho  dwelt  at 
Troas,  on  the  evening  after  the  Sabbath.  And  hence 
that  Paul  and  his  party  traveled  all  day  on  the  fol- 
lowing first  day  of  the  week. 

Ellicott  supports  this  view,  in  the  following  words  : 

"  It  seems  probable  that  in  churches  which  were  so 
largely  organized  on  the  framework  of  the  Jewish  syna- 
gogue, and  contained  so  many  Jews  and  proselytes  who 
had  been  familiar  with  its  usages,  the  Jewish  mode  of 
reckoning  would  still  be  kept,  and  that  as  the  Sabbath 
ended  at  sunset  the  first  day  of  the  week  would  begin  at 
sunset  on  what  was  then  or  soon  afterwards  known  as 
Saturday.  In  this  case  the  meeting  of  which  we  read 
would  be  held  on  what  we  should  call  the  Saturday  even- 
ing and  the  feast  would  present  some  analogies  to  the 
prevalent  Jewish  custom  of  eating  bread  and  drinking 
wine  at  that  time  in  honor  of  the  departing  Sabbath. 
'  Ready  to  depart  on  the  morroiv.'  It  may  perhaps  seem 
strange  to  some,  taking  the  view  maintained  in  the  previ- 
ous note,  that  the  apostle  and  his  companions  should  thus 
purpose  to  travel  on  a  day  to  which  we  have  transferred 
so  many  of   the  restrictions  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.     But 


80  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

it  must  be  remembered  (1)  that  there  is  no  evidence  that 
St.  Paul  thought  of  them  as  so  transferred,  but  rather  the 
contrary.  (Gal.  iv.  10.  Col.  ii.  16.)  and  (2)  that  the 
ship  in  which  his  friends  had  taken  their  passage  was 
not  likely  to  alter  its  day  of  starting  to  meet  their  scru- 
ples even  had  these  scruples  existed."  ^ 

Dr.  Smith  speaks  of  this  service  as  follows^  after 
showing  how  fully  the  customs  of  the  earlier  churches 
grew  out  of  the  synagogue,  both  as  regards  forms 
and  times  of  service  : 

''It  was  a  Jewish  custom  to  end  the  Sabbath  with  a 
feast,  in  which  they  did  honor  to  it  as  to  a  parting  king. 
The  feast  was  held  in  the  synagogue.  A  cup  of  wine 
over  which  a  special  blessing  had  been  spoken,  was  handed 
around.  It  is  obvious  that  so  long  as  the  apostles  and 
their  followers  continued  to  use  the  Jewish  mode  of  reckon- 
ing, i.  e.,  so  long  as  they  fraternized  with  their  brethren 
of  the  stock  of  Abraham,  this  would  coincide  in  point  of 
time  with  their  huirvov  on  the  ^rs^  day  of  the  week." '-^ 

In  conclusion  we  ask  the  reader  to  contrast  this 
one  meagre  and  indefinite  reference  to  the  first  day 
of  the  week  in  all  the  history  of  the  doings  of  the 
Apjostles  for  thirty  years  after  Christ,  with  the  re- 
peated recognition  of  the  Sabbath  in  the  book  of  Acts, 
and  to  decide  in  the   light  of  the   inspired  Word, 

1  Commentary,  vol  ii.,  p.  138. 

2Bible  Dictionary,  Art.  "Synagogue." 


THE    EPISTLES.  81 

what  the  example  of  the  Apostles  was  concerning  the 
Sabbath  and  the  Sunday. 

THE    EPISTLES. 

Turning  to  the  epistles  the  reader  will  find  the  same 
almost  absolute  silence  concerning  the  first  day  of 
the  week.  In  all  the  New  Testament  epistles  there 
is  but  one  reference  to  it,  and  this  does  not  refer  to 
it  as  the  Sabbath,  or  as  commemorative  of  the  resur- 
rection, or  as  in  any  way  holy  or  sacred.  Had  the 
change  been  going  on,  had  the  first  day  been  pressed 
upon  the  attention  of  the  converts,  and  demands 
made  for  its  observance,  much  instruction  would  have 
been  requisite  to  bring  them — especially  the  Hebrews, 
to  obedience.  It  is  against  all  logic  and  all  experi- 
ence to  think  that  such  a  change  could  have  been 
made  during  such  times,  and  nothing  be  said  con- 
cerning it.     Here  is  the  lone  passage  : 

"  Now  concerning  the  collection  for  the  Saints,  as  I 
gave  order  to  the  churches  of  Galatia,  so  also  do  ye. 
Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,  let  each  one  of  you  lay 
by  him  in  store  as  he  may  prosper,  that  no  collections  be 
made  when  I  come."  ^ 

This  is  claimed  by  some  as  an  order  for  a  public 
collection,  and  hence  indicative  of  a  public  meeting 
on  that  day.     The  claim  is  only  a  far-fetched  infer- 

1 1  Cor.  xvi.  1,  2. 
6 


82  SABBATH   AND    SUNDAY. 

ence,  and  is  shown  to  be  unfounded  by  the  expres- 
sion, "lay  by  Iiini  in  store."  Tlie  text  contains  no 
suggestion  of  a  public  gathering,  but  the  exact  op- 
posite. It  is  the  work  of  the  theologian  to  put  such 
an  interpretation  onto  the  passage,  and  not  the  work 
of  the  scholar  to  draw  it  from  the  passage.  In  sup- 
port of  this  are  the  following  facts  : 

The  English  rendering,  ''  let  each  one  of  y^i\  lay 
by  him  in  store,"  clearly  indicates  a  personal  work 
on  the  part  of  each  man  by  himself.  The  Greek  is 
equally  plain,  and,  if  possible,  stronger.  It  is  as 
follows  : 

Kara  fxlav  craffiSdrayv  eKaaro^  vfjLcov  irap  eavro) 
TiOerw,  6r](TavpL^Q)V  6,  tl  av  evoBcorac. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  frame  a  sentence  which 
would  express  the  idea  of  personal  action  by  one's 
self,  more  exactly.  It  is  literally,  "each  one  of  you, 
by  himself,  lay  away,  treasuring  up."     The  Latin  is  : 

"  Per  unam  Sabbatorura  uniisquisqne  vestrum  apud  se 
reponat  recondens,  quod  bene  successerit,"  etc. 

Literally,  "Each  one  of  you  at  his  own  house  lay 
up,  putting  away,"  etc. 

Tyndale  says  :  "Let  every  one  off  you  put  a  syde 
at  home  and  laye  uppe." 

The  Syriac  Peshito,  reads  as  follows  :  "Let  every 
one  of  you  lay  aside  and  preserve  at  home." 


THE    EPISTLES.  83 

To  this  the  following  may  be  added : 

Three  French  versions  read,  "  at  his  own  house  at 
home."  Luther,  "  Bij  himself  at  home.''  Tlie  Dutch  ver- 
sion the  same.  The  ItaUan  version,  *^  In  his  own  presence 
at  home.''  The  Spanish,  "i?^  his  oivn  house."  Portu- 
guese, "  With  himself."  Swedish,  •'  Near  himself  ."  The 
Douay  Bible,  "  Let  every  one  of  you  put  apart  with  him- 
self." Beza,  ^'  At  home."  Kotherham,  ''  Let  each  one  of 
you  put  by  itself.,  treasuring  up"  etc. 

Meyer  says  irap  kavro)  nOeTw  cannot  refer  to  the 
laying  down  of  money  in  the  assembly.  His  trans- 
hition  is  :  "  Let  him  lay  up  in  store  at  home  ichatever 
he  succeeds  in,  i.  e.,  if  he  has  success  in  anything,  let 
him  lay  it  up,  i.  e.,  ivhat  he  has  gained  thereby,  in 
order  that  oratherino:s  be  not  made  when  I  shall  come." 
(On  Cor.  voL  ii.  p.  111.) 

By  such  an  array  of  scholarship  the  vague  infer- 
ence on  which  the  common  notion  rests,  is  at  once 
destroyed.  The  direction  given  by  Paul  is  that  each 
man  should  begin  the  work  of  the  week  by  putting 
aside  as  much  as  he  was  able,  for  the  poor  saints  at 
Jerusalem,  in  order  that  each  having  thus  decided 
what  he  could  do,  there  need  be  no  delay  about  the 
matter  when  Paul  should  arrive.  This  order  was 
only  temporary,  and  for  a  specific  purpose.  More 
than  this,  it  was  only  five  years  before  that  Paul 
organized  the  Corinthian  church  while  he  was  observ- 


84  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

ing  the  Sabbath.  Thus  does  this  passage  prove  too 
weak  to  support  even  an  inference  in  favor  of  a 
change  of  the  Sabbath. 

The  foregoing  conclusion  is  further  supported 
by  the  fact  that  attending  to  gifts  for  the  poor  on  the 
first  day  of  the  week  was  directly  in  the  line  of  the 
customs  of  the  synagogue.     Witness  the  following : 

*'  The  abns  for  the  support  of  the  poor  members  of  the 
congregation  were  put  into  the  alms  chest  before  prayers  ; 
and  on  Sabbath  evenings  what  had  been  collected, 
was  apportioned  to  the  poor  for  the  entire  week.  Some- 
times after  the  usual  collection  in  the  synagogue,  there 
was  an  extraordinary  one  made  by  the  Chazzau,  for  some 

particular  purpose As  this  was  usually  done  on  the 

Sabbath  day  (when  the  Jews  do  not  handle  money),  each 
person  by  word  of  mouth  bound  himself  to  the  minister  of 
the  s^Miagogue  for  a  certain  sum  which  he  paid  the  fol- 
lowing week. 

"  We  may  trace  the  following  points  of  agreement  be- 
tween the  church  and  the  synagogue,  as  to  the  collection 
and  distribution  of  alms.  In  the  synagogue  alms  were 
collected  for  a  two-fold  purpose  ;  for  the  poor  members 
of  the  congregation,  and  for  the  poor  brethren  in  Judea. 
The  same  custom  prevailed  in  the  early  Cliristian  cluirch. 
In  the  synagogue  the  alms  though  set  apart  on  the  Sab- 
bath were  not  paid  until  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

"  This  superstitious  custom  of  not  handling  money  on 
the  Sabbath  is  very  ancient ;  thus  Pliilo  praises  the  Em- 
peror  Augustus   because  in  his   anxiety  that   the   Jews 


THE    EPISTLES.  85 

should  be  partakers  of  his  bounty,  he  ordered,  that  if  the 
day  of  distribution  happened  to  be  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
it  should  be  bestowed  on  the  following  day."^ 

The  above  shows  that  Paul  ordered  the  Corinthians 
to  do  what  they  had  been  accustomed  to  do  in  the 
case  of  "special  collections,"  varying  his  order  in 
only  one  particular,  viz.,  that  instead  of  paying  it 
into  the  treasury  of  the  synagogue  on  the  first  day 
of  the  week,  they  were  to  lay  it  up  at  home  until 
such  time  as  he  might  arrive. 

The  attendant  circumstances  all  strengthen  the  con- 
clusion that  this  was  in  keeping  with  the  synagogue 
practices.  Paul  wrote  this  first  letter  to  the  Co- 
rinthians in  the  Spring  of  57  a.  d.^ 

He  planted  the  church  at  Corinth  in  53,  a.  d.^ 

Like  all  the  earlier  churches,  it  sprang  up  in  and 
around  the  synagogue,  and  among  Jews  and  Jewish 
Proselytes — Acts  xviii.  1-11  ;  Paul  keeping  the  Sab- 
bath meanwhile,  and  in  all  his  stay  of  eighteen 
months  never  uttering  a  word  about  the  obsoleteness 
of  the  Sabbath,  or  of  the  new  institution  of  Sunday. 
Moreover,  the  advocates  of  Sunday  observance  all 
claim  that  the  change  was  a  matter  of  slow  growth, 

^The  Synagogue  and  the  Church,  condensed  from  the  Latin  of 
Vitringa,  by  Joshua  L.  Bernhard,  London,  1842,  pp.  76,  166,  175. 
2Schaff  Ch.  Hist.,  Vol.  1,  p.  750,  Rev.  Ed. 
3  Fisher,  "  Beginnings  of  Christianity,"  p.  579. 


86  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

lest  prejudice  might  be  aroused.  It  is  therefore 
wholly  illogical  to  believe  that  icithin  (fco  years  and 
one  half  from  the  time  Paul  left  Corinth  Jifter  the 
establishing  of  the  church,  so  great  a  change  had 
taken  place,  so  adverse  to  the  i)ractice  of  the  apos- 
tle while  there,  and  amid  the  startling  silence  which 
kept  Paul  from  speaking,  and  Luke  from  writing  any 
word  concerning  Sunday.  The  only  natural  exegesis 
of  the  passage,  in  the  light  of  the  surrounding  facts 
is,  that  the  order  to  lay  aside  tit  home  this  special 
contribution,  was  a  slight  modification  of  the  ordin- 
ary custom,  Avhich  the  circumstances  made  necessary. 


One  more  passage  remains  to  complete  the  survey 
of  proof  claimed  from  the  New  Testment,  Rev.  i.  10, 
"I  was  in  the  spirit  on  the"  Lord's  day."  The  claim 
is  made  that  the  "  Lord's  day"  refers  to  the  first  day 
of  the  wecdv,  which  presupposes  that  the  day  was 
then  observed  as  a  Sal)bath,  or  at  least  as  a  day  of 
reliii'ious  meetimr.  The  only  evidence  offered,  is  the 
presumption  that  it  was  thus  used  then,  because  it  is 
met  with  (for  the  first  time)  in  the  writings  of  one 
of  the  Christian  Fathers  about  170  a.  d,  and  that  it 
afterward  came  to  be  used  to  designate  the  first  day. 
But  the  fact  that  John  uses  the  term  nowhere  else 


"the  lord's  day."  87 

in  all  his  writings,  and  that  he  uses  it  here  in  only 
an  incidental  manner,  and  that  the  writino^s  of  the 
Fathers  down  to  the  year  170,  of  which  there  are 
several  fragments,  make  no  mention  of  it,  proves 
conclusively,  that  in  whatever  sense  elohn  used  the 
term,  he  did  not  apply  it  to  the  first  day  of  the  week. 
It  is  also  an  undisputed  fact  that  when  the  use  of  the 
term  became  somewhat  general,  in  the  third  and 
fourth  centuries,  no  writer  attributes  its  use  to  the 
fact  that  it  had  been  used  in  the  Revelation.  This 
idea  is  strongly  supported  by  the  date  of  the  book, 
wdiich  modern  scholarship  places  at  least  a  quarter 
of  a  century  before  the  date  of  John's  Gospel. 

Accepting  this  modern  date,  68  to  70  a.  d.  before 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, ^  we  have  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century  elapsing,  during  which  time  it 
is  assumed  that  Sunday  observance,  as  the  "Lord's 
day  "  was  making  rapid  strides,  and  yet  in  his  latest 
writings,  John  uses  only  the  term  first  day  of  the 
week,  for  Sunday,  and  uses  that  onl}^  incidentally  in 
connection  with  the  account  of  the  announcinof  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ.  Every  law  of  internal  evi- 
dence forbids  the  conclusion  that  he  used  the  term 
"Lord's  day,"  as  referring  to  Sunday  in  the  earlier 

1  "See  Beginnings  of  Christianity,"  by  Prof.  Geo.  P.  Fisher, 
p.  534,  seq. 


OO  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

writing,  and  does  not  use  it  a  quarter  of  a  century 
later  when  the  term  and  the  day,  as  is  claimed,  had 
grown  to  be  common  and  universal.  The  same  argu- 
ment holds  good  of  the  Book  of  Acts,  completed  62 
or  63  A.  D.  and  including  much  historj^  which  de- 
mands some  record  concerning  the  day,  and  the  terms 
by  which  it  was  known,  if  the  popular  notion  be 
correct,  and  yet  this  history  mentions  the  day  but 
once,  and  that  only  as  the  "first  day  of  the  week." 

Whatever  the  phrase  may  mean,  there  is  not  in  it, 
or  its  contexts,  evidence  that  it  refers  to  any  day  of 
the  week.  Like  all  the  rest  of  the  passages  referred 
to  in  favor  of  Sunday,  it  has  no  point  or  meaning 
until  what  men  seek  to  prove  is  first  assumed. 

If  the  expression  means  any  day  of  the  week,  it 
means  the  seventh  day,  which  the  Bible  declares  to 
be  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord.  This  idea  comports 
well  with  the  Jewish  character  of  the  Revelation. 

If  it  be  not  a  corruption  of  the  text — made  in  a 
book  which  was  late  in  coming  into  the  Canon — the 
term  Lord's  day  evidently  refers  to  the  ''  Great  and 
notable  Day  of  the  Lord,"  the  time  of  his  coming 
and  judgments,  which  form  the  sul^ject  matter  of 
the  Revelation.  A  literal  rendering  of  the  expres- 
sion supports  this  idea — "I  was  in  the  Spirit  in  the 
Lordly  day,  "  or  "the  day  pertaining  to  the  Lord." 


"the  lord's  day."  89 

We  are  now  prepared  to  sum  up  the  case  as  re- 
o-ards  the  example  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  in 
observing  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

Six    passages  are  quoted  in  favor  of  such  obser- 
vance.    Only   three  of  these    passages   mention  the 
first  day  of  the  week  in  any  manner.     Neither  of 
them  speaks  of  it  as  sabbatic,  or  as  commemorative 
of  any  event,  or  sacred,  or  to  be  regarded  above 
other  days,  and  it  is  only  by  vague    and    illogical 
inferences  that  either  of  them  is  made  to  produce  a 
shadow  of  proof  for  such  a  change.     Concerning  the 
other  three,  it  is  only  supposed  by  the  advocates  of 
the  popular  theory,  that  they  in  some  way  refer  to 
the  first  day.     To  this  therefore,  does  the  "argument 
from    example"    come,    when    carefully    examined. 
The  New  Testament  never  speaks  of,  or  hints  at,  a 
chano-e  of  the  Sabbath ;  it  contains  no  notice  of  any 
commemorative  or  sabbatic  observance  of  Sunday. 
It  does  tell  of  the  repeated  and  continued  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles.     Will 
the  reader  please  examine  the  Bible  to  see  whether 
these  things  are  so.     Sunday  observance  is  a  myth, 
as  far  as  the  Bible  is  concerned,  and  the  theory  of  a 
"change  of  the  Sabbath  by  divine  authority,"  had  its 
birth  with  English  Puritanism  less  than  three  hun- 
dred years  ago. 


APPENDIX  A. 

THE    ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK. 

When  did  the  week  originate  ?  This  is  an  impor- 
tant question,  both  as  a  fact  in  history,  and  as  a 
factor  in  the  Sabbath  question.  The  origin  of  the 
week  and  of  the  Sabbath  which  closes  it,  thus  estab- 
lishing its  limit,  must  be  contemporaneous.  If  the  / 
week  antedates  Judaism,  and  existed  outside  the 
Hebrew  nation,  the  Sabbath  is  thereby  shown  to  be  ) 
universal  rather  than  "Jewish."  If  it  antedates 
Moses,  his  legislation  and  leadership,  it  is  not 
"Mosaic."  If  the  week  which  antedates  Moses  and 
existed  among  the  nations  that  flourished  before  the 
time  of   the  Hebrew  nation  is  identical  with   the 

lelirew  and  the  Christian  week,  then  it  is  certain 
:hat  there  was  no  change  of  the  week  or  of  the  Sab- 

)ath  when  the  Israelites  left  Egypt,  as  certain  men 
claim,  who  are  more  visionary  than  scholarly.  Thus 
the  existence  of  a  primeval  and  universal  week, 
identical  with  our  own,  settles  at  least  three  phases 
of  the  Sabbath  question,  without  appeal  to  the  Bible. 
90 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  91 

We  give  below  the  results  of  the  latest  research  on 
this  point,  and  draw  certain  conclusions  thereon  : 

BABYLONIA    AND    ASSYRIA. 

"The  science  of  Assyria,  like  most  things  else,  was 
derived  from  Accad.  A  large  number  of  its  technical 
terms  were  borrowed  from  the  Turanian,  and  continued  to 
the  last,  an  enduring  monument  of  the  debt  owed  by  the 
Semite  to  his  predecessor.  At  the  same  time,  he  did  not 
remain  a  mere  imitator ;  science  received  a  development 
in  his  hands  which  might  have  been  looked  for  in  vain 
from  a  Turanian  race.  First  and  foremost  comes  the  as- 
tronomy, for  which  Babylonia  was  so  famous  in  the  ancient 
world.  Its  beginning  goes  back  to  the  time  when  the  Ac- 
cadians  had  not  descended  from  their  mountain  fastnesses. 
The  zenith  was  fixed  above  Elam,  and  not  above  Bab- 
ylonia, and  the  '  Mountain  of  the  East,'  the  primitive 
home  of  the  race  was  supposed  to  support  the  firmament. 
The  shrines  on  the  topmost  terraces  of  the  temples  were 
used  also  as  observatories.  Ur  had  its  royal  observatory, 
and  so  probably  had  the  other  cities  of  Chaldea ;  in  As- 
syria they  existed  at  Assur,  Nineveh,  and  Arbela,  and 
the  astronomers,  royal,  had  to  send  in  their  reports  to  the 
king  twice  a  month.  At  an  early  date  the  stars  were 
numbered  and  named ;  but  the  most  important  astronom- 
ical work  of  the  Accadians  was  the  formation  of  a  calen- 
dar. This  came  after  the  division  of  the  heavens  into 
degrees,  since  the  twelve  months  (of  thirty  days  each) 
were  named  after  the  zodiacal  signs,  and  would  seem  to 
belong  to   about   2200,  B.  C.     Somewhat  strangely,  the 


92  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

Accadian  calendar  appears  to  have  passed  to  the  As- 
syrians (and  through  them  to  the  Jews)  through  the 
medium  of  the  Aramaeans,  .  .  .  The  week  of  seven  da3^s 
was  in  use  from  an  early  period,  indeed,  the  names 
which  we  still  give  to  the  days  can  be  traced  to  Ancient 
Babylonia;  and  the  seventh  day  was  one  of  sulum,  or 
'rest.'"^ 

The  Library  of  Universal  Knoidedge  bears  the 
following  testimony  : 

"The  dominant  people  in  Babylonia  in  the  earliest 
times  were  the  Accad  or  Accadians.  They  had  come 
originally  from  the  mountains  of  Elam  to  the  east  of 
the  Tigris,  and  hence  their  name  Accad,  which  means 
'  highlanders.'  They  brought  with  them  the  art  of  cunei- 
form writing  as  well  as  other  arts  and  sciences,  especially 
astronomy.  It  is  in  the  Turanian  language  of  these 
Accadians  that  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  Babylonia 
are  written  for  many  centuries.  And  when  the  Semitic 
tongue  had  become  predominant,  Accadian,  now  a  dead 
language,  was  to  the  Assyrians  what  Latin  has  been  to  the 
nations  of  modern  Europe.  Assyrian  scholars  translated 
the  Accadian  literature  into  their  own  language  and  their 
technical  and  sacred  terms  were  borrowed  from  it.  Every 
day  is  bringing  to  light  new  proofs  of  the  influence  of 
these  Accadians  upon  the  civilization  of  the  Semitic  na- 
tions, and  through  them  upon  that  of  Europe.  Greece,  it 
is  well  known,  derived  its  system  of  weights  and  measures 
from  the  Babylonian  standard  ;  but  these  have  proved  to 

lEncyc.  Britannica,  Art.  '*  Babylonia,"  vol.  3,  p.  165. 


OKIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  93 

be  of  Accadian  origin.  The  Greek  mina  or  mna^  the 
fundamental  unit  of  the  Greek  monetary  system,  is  the 
m.aneh  of  Carchemish,  and  maneh  is  found  to  be,  not  a 
Semitic,  but  an  Accadian  word,  showing  the  origin  of  the 
system.  The  sexagesimal  division  of  the  circle,  the 
signs  of  the  zodiac,  a  week  of  seven  days^  named  as  we 
now  name  them^  and  the  seventh  a  day  of  rest,  are  all  Ac- 
cadian. Every  large  city  had  its  public  library.  In  the 
royal  library  of  a  Babylonian  monarch,  Sargon  (about 
2000  B.  C.),  every  tablet  was  numbered  so  that  the 
reader  had  only  to  write  down  the  number  of  the  tablet  he 
wanted  and  it  was  handed  him  by  the  librarian.  Among 
the  multifarious  subjects  of  this  extensive  literature,  are 
hymns  to  the  gods  strikingly  like  the  Hebrew  Psalms,  and 
in  a  long  mythological  poem  there  is  an  episode  giving  an 
account  of  the  deluge  almost  identical  with  that  of  Gene- 
sis, only  more  detailed." 

The  Presbyterian  Revieiv  for  October,  1882,  con- 
tains an  article  upon  "  The  Sabbath  and  the  Cunei- 
form Inscriptions,"  by  Prof.  Francis  Brown,  from 
which  the  following  is  extracted : 

''  In  the  very  first  section  of  the  book  of  Genesis  (ii.  2.), 
God  is  represented  as  resting  on  the  seventh  day,  and 
in  Exodus  (xx.  11),  the  command  to  observe  the  Sabbath 
is  based  upon  God's  so  resting :  Now  it  became  evident, 
as  soon  as  men  were  able  to  study  the  fundamental 
notions  of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  with  the  help 
of  contemporary  documents,  that  the  number  seven  was 
one  of  great  significance  to  them.     Oppert  found  in  an 


94  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

Astronomical  Tablet  a  connection  between  the  sun,  moon, 
and  five  planets,  and  the  days  of  the  week.  And  Schra- 
der  argued  at  length  for  the  week  of  seven  days  as  origin- 
al with  the  Babylonians.  But  still  earlier  than  this, 
George  Smith  had  made  an  important  discovery.  He 
says,  '  In  the  year  1869,  I  discovered  among  other  things 
a  curious  religious  calendar  of  the  Assyrians,  in  which 
every  month  is  divided  into  four  weeks,  and  the  seventh 
days  or  Sabbaths,  are  marked  out  as  days  on  wiiich  no 
work  should  be  undertaken.'  *  In  another  place  he  tells 
us,  more  explicitly,  that  the  7th,  14th,  19th,  21st,  and 
28th  days  are  described  by  an  idiogram  equivalent  to  suhi 
or  sulum,  meaning  rest.  The  calendar  contains  lists  of 
works  forbidden  to  be  done  on  these  days,  which  evi- 
dently correspond  to  the  Sabbath  of  tlie  Jews. 

"In  1875  appeared  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Cunei- 
form Inscriptions  of  Western  Asia,  containing  some  calen- 
dar texts,  and  in  connection  with  these,  Sayce  took 
occasion  to  confirm  the  statements  of  Smith,  and  gave 
a  translation  of  the  requirements  for  the  seventh  day. 
Here  we  find  also,  the  first  mention  of  Boscawen's  discov- 
ery that  Sabbattu  is  in  one  place  explained  as  uminuhUbhi, 
'  a  day  of  rest  of  heart.'  In  the  following  year  Sayce 
published  a  translation  of  the  whole  knowledge,  or  de- 
scription of  the  days,  of  the  intercalary  month  Elul, 
calling  special  attention  to  the  restrictions  imposed  for 
each  seventh  day.  Since  then  there  have  been  repeated 
allusions  to  the  '  Babylonian  Sabbath,'  and  some  employ- 
ment of  it  by  a  too  hasty  Apologetics.   .   .   . 

"  Oppert  was  the  first  to  call  attention  to  a  cuneiform 
tablet  containing  a  list  of  stars,  seven  in  number,  con- 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  95 

nected  each  with  a  deity,  the  whole  list  corresponding  to 
the  deities  whose  names  our  days  bear  ;  the  list  concludes, 
according  to  him,  with  the  words  '  These  are  the  seven 
chiefs  of  the  days  of  the  week  {masi).'  But  this  trans- 
lation of  masi  was  not  accompanied  by  any  proof  of  its 
correctness,  and  Schrader,  who  took  up  the  general  idea 
of  Oppert,  wisely  sought  to  lay  a  firmer  foundation.  He 
starts  from  the  position  that  the  Arabians  owed  the  seven 
day  week  to  the  Jews,  and  that  among  these  and  their 
ancestors,  the  old  Hebrews,  it  had  been  known  from  time 
immemorial.  That  the  Hebrews  did  not  invent  it,  ap- 
pears from  the  knowledge  of  it  among  the  ancient  Ara- 
mieans  as  well,  who  can  hardly  have  derived  it  from  the 
Hebrews ;  that  the  Hebrews  learned  it  from  the  Ara- 
maeans is  contrary  to  the  Hebrew  conception  of  its 
remote  antiquity  among  themselves.  They  could  not  have 
learned  it  in  Egvpt,  for  there  the  '  week  '  was  ten  days 
long.  Thus  we  are  pointed  back  to  the  early  home  of  the 
Canaanites  (Hebrews  and  Phenicians)  in  Babylonia. 
After  thus  noticing  the  historical  probability,  Schrader 
then  brings  in  the  inscription  which  Oppert  had  translated, 
laying  stress  upon  the  order  and  names  of  the  gods  to 
whom  the  stars  were  said  to  belong  :  Shamosh^  sun  ;  Shin^ 
moon ;  Nergal,  Mars,  Zivis,  (Ti'v)  ;  Neho,  Mercury, 
Woden  ;  Merodach,  Jupiter,  Thor  ;  Ishtar^  Venus,  Freia  ; 
Ada?',  Saturn.  The  inference  is  that  the  names  of  the 
seven  week  days  originated  in  Babylonia  ;  but  if  so,  the 
seven-day  week  must  have  existed  previously  to  the  as- 
signment of  the  names,  and  thus  we  have  an  explanation 
of  its  early  appearance  among  the  Hebrews,  and  also  of 
their  habit  of  numbering   instead   of    naming  the  days  ; 


96  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

for  only  in  comparatively  late  times  (from  a  period  not 
long,  it  may  be,  before  the  Christian  era) ,  does  it  appear 
that  the  names  of  the  days  were  transmitted  from  people  to 
people  along  with  the  week." 

The  following  letter  from  Prof.  Sayce,  Deputy 
Professor  of  Comparative  Philology,  Oxford,  En- 
gland, dated  Queen's  College,  Nov.  22,  1875,  gives 
the  facts  above  referred  to,  in  detail,  as  follows  : 

"  THE    CHALDEAN    ORIGIN    OF    THE    SABBATH." 

"It  is  now  some  time  since  first  Mr.  Oppert,  and 
then  more  fully  Dr.  Schrader,  ^  pointed  out  the  Baby- 
lonian origin  of  the  week.  Seven  was  a  sacred  number 
among  the  Accadians,  and  their  lunar  months  were  at  an 
early  epoch  divided  into  periods  of  seven  days  each.  The 
days  were  dedicated  to  the  sun  and  moon  and  five  planets, 
and  to  the  deities  who  presided  over  these.  The  northern 
Semites  borrowed  this  division  of  time,  and  carried  it 
with  them  on  their  migration  to  the  West.  In  one  of  the 
newly  found  fragments  which  recount  the  Chaldean  Ver- 
sion of  the  Creation  the  appointment  of  the  stars  called 
'  leaders  of  the  week,'  is  expressly  mentioned,  and  the 
same  fragment  records  how  the  moon  was  made  '  to  go 
forth  from  the  heaven  on  the  seventh  day.' 

"  Four  years  ago  Mr.  Geo.  Smith  drew  attention  to  the 

fact  that  the  7th,  14th,  21st,  and  28th   days  of  the  month 

were  termed  days  of    ^idum  or  '  rest,'  on  which    certain 

works  were  forbidden  to  be  done  ;  and  that  the  expression 

i  Studien  and  Kritiken,  1874. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK,  97 

'  day  of  rest '  was  but  the  Assyrian  translation  of  the 
older  Accadian  equivalent  which  signified  '  dies  nefastusJ 
Now  a  hemerology  of  the  month  of  the  intercalatory  Elul, 
lithographed  in  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Cuneiform  In- 
scriptions of  Western  Asia,  gives  what  we  may  call  a 
Saints  Calendar  for  the  month,  with  notes  upon  the  religious 
duties  required  from  the  king  on  each  day.  The  memo- 
randum attached  to  the  seventh  day,  I  translate  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  The  seventh  day,  the  festival  of  Merodach  and  Zir- 
panitu  :  a  holy  day.  A  Sabbath  for  the  ruler  of  great 
nations.  Sodden  flesh  (and)  cooked  fruit  he  may  not 
eat.  His  clothes  he  may  not  change.  (New)  garments 
he  may  not  put  on.  Sacrifices  he  may  not  offer.  The 
king  his  chariot  may  not  drive.  In  royal  fashion  he  may 
not  legislate.  A  place  of  assembly  for  the  Judge  he  may 
not  establish.  Medicine  for  his  ailments  of  body  he  may 
not  apply.  '  To  make  a  measured  square  (translated  also, 
To  make  a  sacred  spot^'  which  is  much  more  natural  and 
to  be  preferred)  it  is  suitable.  During  the  (ensuing) 
night,  in  the  presence  of  Merodach  and  Istar^  the  king 
should  erect  his  altar,  make  a  sacrifice,  and  lifting  up  his 
hand,  worship  (in)  the  high  place  of  the  God. 

"  The  same  memorandum  is  attached  to  the  14th,  21st, 
and  28th  daj-s  of  the  month,  except  that  the  14th  was 
consecrated  to  Beltis  and  Nergal,  the  21st  to  the  moon  and 
the  sun,  and  the  28th  to  Hea  and  Nergal,  whose  rest  day 
it  is  expressly  stated  to  be,  the  word  being  written  in 
Accadian.  On  the  21st,  moreover,  it  was  '  white  gar- 
ments,' which  might  not  be  put  on,  and  the  sacrifices  to 
the  gods  had  to  be  performed  at  dawn.  'J  he  19th  day 
7 


98  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

was  also  a  Sabbath,  the  '  white  day '  of  the  Goddess 
Gula.  I  have  exphiined  in  ray  monograph  upon  the  Bab}^- 
louian  Astronomy  (in  the  Transactions  of  the  society  of 
Biblical  Areh^eology,  1874,  p.  207)  how  this  came  to  be 
the  case. 

"  Even  the  word  Sahbath  itself  was  not  unknown  to  the 
Assyrians.  Mr.  Boscawen  has  pointed  out  to  me  that  it 
occurs,  under  the  form  Sabbattu  in  W.  A.  I.  2  :  32.  16, 
where  it  is  explained  as  a  '  day  of  rest   for  the  heart.'  " 

The  explanation  concerning  the  19tli  day  of  the 
month,  to  which  Prof.   Sayce  refers,  is  as  follows  : 

"  The  months  were  lunar  and  were  divided  into  two 
lunations  ;  and  the  days  on  which  the  quarters  of  the 
moon  began,  as  well  as  the  beginning  of  the  second  luna- 
tion were  called  days  of  Stdum  or  '  rest,'  on  which  certain 
works  were  forl)idden."  ' 

Other  authorities  speak  as  follows  : 

"  Among  the  Semitic  nations,  which  as  far  as  our  in- 
formation goes,  seem  to  have  had  the  computation  by 
weeks  from  the  earliest  period,  the  Arabs  stand  foremost ; 
and,  up  to  this  day,  count  their  days  by  sevens,  beginning 
and  ending  with  the  sunset  previous  to  each  new  day  ; 
and  they  count  them  instead  of  giving  them  special  names, 
except  Friday,  which  is  called  '  Day  of  Assembly,'  or 
Aruba,  Eve  (of  the  Jewish  Sabbath) .  Slavonians,  Lithua- 
nians and  Finns  also  count  their  days  from  Sunday  in- 
stead of  giving  them  names."  - 

1  Transactions  of  the  Society  of    BibHcal  Arcliteology,  Vol.  3, 
p.  207. 
2 Chamber's  Encyclopedia,  Article  "Week." 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  99 

"  It  (the  week)  was  found  as  a  civil  institution  in  the 
very  earliest  times  among  the  Hindoos,  Persians,  Assyr- 
ians, and  Egyptians.  But  the  Jews  were  the  only  nation 
with  which  the  week  had  a  religious  signification.  With 
the  Egyptians,  Assja-ians,  etc.,  the  seventh  day  was  sim- 
ply a  day  of  recreation  ;  with  the  Jews  it  was  a  day  of 
worship,  the  Sabbath."  ^ 

In  tlie  article  on  Sunday,  Johnson  gives  the  fol- 
lowing definition  : 

"  Sunday  [Sax.  Sunnan  Darg.  Lat.  Dies  Soils.  In 
the  Sanscrit  and  other  languages  of  India,  the  first  day 
of  the  week  has  the  same  signification]." 

In  the  Conteinporary  Review,  for  June,  1879,  the 
astronomer,  K.  A.  Proctor,  argues  that  the  moon 
was  probably  the  first  measure  of  the  month;  also, 
that  the  month  and  week  were  used  as  convenient 
standards  for  measuring  m  business  matters,  as  seen 
in  the  case  of  Jacob  and  Laban.  So  he  thinks  busi- 
ness and  religion  combined  to  establish  the  week. 
Mr.  Proctor  adds  : 

-'  Be  this  however  as  it  may,  it  seems  abundantly  clear 
that  quite  early  in  the  progress  of  astronomy,  the  more 
scientific  and  observant  must  have  recognized  the  unfitness 
of  the  week  as  an  astronomical  measure  of  time.  With 
the  disappearance  of  the  week  from  astronomical  systems 
(the  lunar  quarters  being  retained,  however)    the  week 

1  Johnson's  New  Universal  Encyclopedia,  Article  "  Week." 


100  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

may  be  considered  to  have  become  what  it  is  now  for 
ourselves,  a  civil,  and  in  some  sense  a  religious  time 
measure." 

This  period  Mr.  Proctor  places  as  early  as  2170 
B.  C. 

In  a  later  work,  Prof.  Proctor  supports  the  an- 
tiquity of  the  week  on  scientific  grounds,  in  the 
strongest  manner.  He  sets  Revelation  aside,  and  at- 
tempts to  account  for  all  forms  of  time  measurement 
on  an  astrological  and  astronomic  basis.  He  makes 
a  long  a  priori  argument  to  show  how  these  influences 
wrought  to  develop  the  week  as  the  first  time  meas- 
ure, and  how  all  succeeding  divisions  of  time  followed 
through  the  same  influences,  combined  with  the  re- 
ligious element.     Developing  this  argument  he  says  : 

*'  In  the  first  place,  I  think  it  will  appear  that  some  di- 
vision of  the  month  analogous  to  the  week  must  have 
been  sugggested  as  a  measure  of  time  long  before  the 
year.  Commonly  the  year  is  taken  as  either  the  first  and 
most  obvious  of  all  time  measure,  or  else  as  only  second 
to  the  da^^  But  in  its  astronomical  aspect  the  j'-ear  is 
not  a  very  obvious  division  of  time.  I  am  not  here 
speaking,  be  it  understood,  of  the  exact  determination 
of  the  length  of  the  year.  That,  of  necessity,  was  a 
work  requiring  much  time,  and  could  only  have  been  suc- 
cessfully achieved  by  astronomers  of  considerable  skill. 
I  am  referring  to  the  commonplace  year,  the  ordinary 
progression  of  those  celestial  phenomena  which  mark  the 


OPaGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  101 

changes  of  the  seasons,  .  .  .  But  no  definite  way  of 
noting  the  progress  of  the  year  by  the  movements  of  the 
sun  or  stars  would  probably  have  suggested  itself  until 
some  time  after  the  moon's  motions  had  been  used  as  a 
means  of  measuring  time. 

"  The  lunar  changes,  on  the  other  hand,  are  very  strik- 
ing and  obvious ;  they  can  be  readily  watched,  and  they 
are  marked  by  easily  determinable  stages.  It  appears 
more  easy,  says  Whewell,  and  in  earlier  stages  of  civiliza- 
tion (it  was)  more  common,  to  count  time  by  77100ns  than 
by  years."  ^ 

In  developing  his  argument,  Prof.  Proctor  con- 
cludes that  lunar  astronomy  with  the  week  a,s  the 
chief  measure  of  time  prevailed  a  long  time  before 
sold}'  astronomy  and  the  y^ear  were  known.  He 
thinks  that  the  change  came  at  a  point  where  the 
origin  of  the  science  of  astronomy  has  been  assumed 
to  be,  with  the  Chaldeans,  and  that"  As  to  the  epoch 
of  the  real  beginning  of  astronomy  we  have  no  means 
of  judging."  The  Chaldean  epoch,  when  the  solar 
year  came  in,  he  claims,  could  not  have  been  the 
beginning  or  even  during  the  infancy  of  the  science. 
This  epoch  Prof.  Proctor  places  at  about  2170  B^  C. 
So  that,  scientifically  considered,  the  origin  of  the 
week  is  much  earlier  than  that  date. 

The  chapter  on  the  "  Origin  of  the  Week  "  is  fol- 
lowed by  one  on  "  Saturn  and  the  Sabbath  of  the 
iTbe  Great  Pyramid,  pp.  204,  206.     London:  1883. 


102  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

Jews."  In  the  former  chapter  (p.  217),  Mr  Proctor 
claims  that,  "  The  earliest  record  we  have  of  liirino^ 
is  that  contained  in  Genesis  xxix,"  when  the  service 
of  Jacob  with  Laban  is  regulated  hy  the  Aveek  and 
month.  Still,  with  an  inconsistency  not  wholly  un- 
common, he  claims  that  the  Sabbath  was  borrowed 
by  the  Hebrews  from  the  Egyptians  and  Chaldeans. 
He  says  : 

'•Assigning  the  origin  of  the  first  Jewish  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  to  the  time  of  the  Exodus,  we  are  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  custom  of  keeping  each  seventh 
day  as  a  day  of  rest,  was  derived  from  the  people  amongst 
whom  the  Jews  had  been  sojourning  more  than  two  hun- 
dred years.  It  is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  Moses 
would  have  added  to  the  almost  overwhelming  difficulties 
which  he  had  to  encounter  in  dealing  with  the  obstinate 
people  he  led  from  Egypt,  the  task  of  establishing  a  new 
festival.  Such  a  task  is  at  all  times  difficult,  but  at  the 
time  of  the  Exodus  it  would  have  been  hopeless  to  under- 
take it.  The  people  were  continually  rebelling  against 
Moses,  because  he  sought  to  turn  them  from  the  worship 
of  the  gods  of  Egypt,  in  whom  they  were  disposed  to 
trust.  It  was  no  time  to  establish  a  new  festival,  unless 
one  could  be  devised  which  should  correspond  with  the 
customs  they  had  learned  in  Egypt.  Moses  would  seem 
indeed  to  have  pursued  a  course  of  compromise.  Oppos- 
ing manfully  the  worship  of  the  Egyptian  gods,  he  adopt- 
ed, nevertheless,  Egyptian  ceremonies  and  festivals, 
only  so  far  modifying  them  that  (as  he  explains  them) 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  103 

they  ceased  to  be  associated  with  the  worship  of  false 
gods. 

"We  have  also  historical  evidence  as  to  the  non- 
Jewish  origin  of  the  observance  of  the  seventh  da}^  as 
decisive  of  the  arguments  I  have  been  considering.  For 
Philo  JLidaeus,  Josephus,  Clement  of  Alexandria  and  oth- 
ers, speak  plainly  of  the  week  as  not  of  Jewish  origin, 
but  common  to  all  the  Oriental  nations."  ^ 

In  ftirther  corroboration  of  the  fact  that  the  pri- 
meval week  was  closed  by  the  Sal)])ath,  in  the  same 
order  as  at  present,  ]\Ir.  Proctor  snys  : 

'  •  I  must  remark,  however,  that  this  point  is  by  no 
means  essential  for  the  main  argument  of  this  paper, 
which  is  in  reality  based  on  the  unquestioned  fact  that 
amongst  all  the  nations  which  used  the  week  as  a  division 
of  time,  the  seventh  day  was  associated  with  the  planet 
Saturn."  ^ 

]Mr.  Proctor  also  lalDors  to  show  that  all  the  Jew- 
ish festivals  were  the  product  of  Sabaism  and  astrol- 
ogy as  they  prevailed  among  the  Pagan  nations, 
and  that  Moses  developed  the  Jew  ish  system  as  a 
general  compromise  between  his  own  religious  no- 
tions and  the  practices  w^hich  the  Hebrew^s  had  be- 
come accustomed  to  in  Egypt.  He  ignores  the 
Patriarchal  period  and  its  influence.     In  short,  he 

^  pp.  248—9. 

2  Pyramid,  etc.,  p.  254, 


104  SABBATH    AND    SUXDAY. 

accepts  the  facts  concerning  the  primeval  and  uni- 
versal character  of  the  week,  but  attempts  to  account 
for  it  on  non-Biblical  grounds.  We  deem  it  far 
more  logical,  and  the  only  conclusion  consistent  with 
Christian  faith,  that  the  week  was  established  at  the 
earliest  period  by  the  Sabbath  as  the  sacred  time- 
measure.  The  Patriarchal  and  Hebrew  line  of  hu- 
manity retained  the  true  conception,  and  the  true 
naming  of  the  days,  that  is  b}^  numerals.  The  other 
lines  of  humanity  drifted  aAva}^  from  this  j^rinieval 
revelation,  adopted  the  worship  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  and  named  the  days  of  the  week  after  the 
planets.  They  preserved  the  original  order  of  the 
days,  and  hence  whenever  the  two  lines  of  human 
life  touch  each  other  in  history,  God's  Sabbath  and 
Saturn's  day  coincide.  In  the  apostatizing  of  the 
nations,  sun  worship  and  the  sun  god  became  the 
great  rival  of  Jehovah,  and  the  sun's  day,  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  has  been  the  one  great  rival  of  God's 
Sabbath.  But  the  ripening  centuries  are  hastening 
the  time  when  God  and  his  Sabbath  will  be  vindicated, 
and  re-enthroned,  and  not  least  among  the  influences 
at  work  toward  this  end  are  the  deductions  of  science 
and  history,  which  prove  the  primeval  and  universal 
existence  of  the  week,  in  its  present  and  unbroken 
order. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  105 

The  Philological  Museum  assigns  the  names  of 
the  days  of  the  week  to  the  mythology  of  the  Scandi- 
navians, the  astrology  of  the  Egyptians  and  Chal- 
deans, and  the  mythology  of  the  Romans,  combined. 
It  also  states  that  "  Saturn's  day  was  always  con- 
nected with  the  Jewish  Sabbath,"  Avhich  it  is  claimed 
is  not  absurd,  because  plainly  the  week  was  ancient.^ 

Ideler,  thinks  the  Romans  saw  some  connection 
between  the  Jewish  Sabbath  and  their  Saturn-alia. 
He  also  recognizes  the  existence  of  the  Sabbath,  the 
seventh  day,  among  the  Gentile  nations  before  the 
Roman  era.^ 

A  work  by  John  Brady,  London,  entitled  Clavis 
Calendarium,  also  recognizes  the  universal  and 
primeval  character  of  the  week.^ 

These  testimonies  combine  to  show  that  the  week, 
as  now  numbered  and  named,  existed  from  the  re- 
motest period  yet  reached  among  the  Accadians, 
Babylonians,  and  Assyrians. 

INDIA. 

There  is  abundant  testimony  to  the  existence  of  the 
week  among  the  people  of  India  also,  where  perhaps 
the  astronomical  element  was  most  strongly  marked. 

iVol.  1,  p.  28 

2  Chronology,  vol.  2,  pp.  175,  178. 

3  Vol.  1,  pp.  95,  96. 


106  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

Mr.  Wilson  inclines  to  the  opinion  that  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  week  may  have  originated  in  India.  AVe 
think  that  it  did  not  originate  in  Egypt,  but  with  the 
Accadian  ancestors  of  the  Babylonians.  The  fol- 
lowing are  Mr.  Wilson's  words  : 

"  The  specification  of  the  days  of  the  week  by  the 
names  of  the  seven  planets,  is,  as  it  is  well  known,  famil- 
iar to  the  Hindus.  The  origin  of  this  is  not  very  precisely 
ascertained,  as  it  was  unknown  to  the  Greeks,  and  not 
adopted  by  the  Romans  until  a  later  period.  It  is  com- 
monly ascribed  to  the  Egyptians  and  Babylonians,  but  on 
no  very  sufficient  authority,  and  the  Hindus  appear  to 
have  at  least  as  good  a  title  as  any  other  people  to  the 
invention. 

.  .  .  Aditya-Vara,  Ravi-Vara,  or  Rabi-Bar.  in  the  bar- 
barized vernacular.  Dies  Solis,  Sunday  is  one  of  every 
seven.  This  is  somewhat  different  from  the  Seventh 
Tithi,  or  lunar  da}^ ;  but  a  sort  of  sanctity  is  or  was 
attached  even  to  Sunday,  and  fasting  on  it  was  considered 
obligatory  or  meritorious.  .  .  .  It  is  impossible  to  avoid 
inferring  from  the  general  chai-acter  of  the  prayers  and 
observances  and  the  sanctity  evidently  attached  to  the 
recurring  seventh  day,  some  connection  with  the  Sabbath, 
or  Seventh  of  the  Hebrew  Heptamerou."  ^ 

Witness  also  the  following  : 

"Whoever  listens  to  the  story  of  Prahlada  is  immedi- 

1  IT.  H.  Wilson,  A.  M.,  F.  R.  S.,  Professor  of  Sanscrit,  Oxford, 
Works,  vol.  2,  of  Essays  on  the  Religion  of  the  Hindus,  pp.  198 — 
201. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  107 

ately  cleansed  from  his  sins  ;  the  iniquities  that  he  com- 
mits by  night  or  by  clay,  shall  be  expiated  by  once  hearing, 
or  once  reading  the  history  of  Prahlada.  The  perusal 
of  this  history  on  the  day  of  full  moon,  of  new  moon,  or 
on  the  eighth  or  twelfth  day  of  the  lunation  shall  yield 
fruit  equal  to  the  gift  of  a  cow,"  [/.  e.,  a  great  gift]. 
Note.  "The  days  of  full  and  new  moon  are  sacred 
with  all  sects  of  Hindus."  ^ 

In  Sacred  Books  of  the  East  (Max  Muller)  vol.  2, 
p.  85,  we  find  fa:>ting  on  full  and  new  moon,  as 
a  penance  i'oi'  sin.  In  vol.  5,  p.  406,  Mr.  Muller 
says-: 

"  The  first  weekly  period  begins  with  a  day  dedicated 
to  Anharmazd,  and  called  by  his  own  name  ;  and  each 
of  the  three  other  weekly  periods  also  begins  with  a  day 
dedicated  to  Anharmazd,  but  called  by  the  name  of  Din, 
religion,  with  the  name  of  the  following  day  added  as  a 
cognomen.  The  first  week  therefore  consists  of  the  day 
of  Anharmazd,  followed  by  six  days  named  after  the  six 
archangels,  respectively.  The  second  week  consists  of  the 
day  Din-with-ataro,  followed  by  six  days  named  after  the 
angels  of  fire  water,  the  sun,  the  moon.  Mercury,  and  the 
primeval  ox.  The  third  week  consists  of  the  day  Din- 
with-Mitro,  followed  by  seven  da^^s  named  after  the  angels 
of  solar  light,  obedience  and  justice,  the  guardian  spirits 
and  the  angels  of  victory,  pleasure  and  wind.  And  the 
fourth  week  consists  of  the  day  Din-with-Dino,  followed 
by  seven  da3''s  named  after  the  angels  of  religion,  right- 

1  Vishnu  Parana,  chap.  20,  Wilson's  Trans. 


108  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

eousness,  rectitude,  the  sky,  the  earth,  the  liturgy,  and 
the  fixed  stars." 

Here  we  have  the  week,  with  the  days  named  in 
order  though  the  month,  and  two  weeks  of  eight 
days  to  meet  the  intercalary  difficulty.  It  is  the 
Hebrew  week,  modified  by  the  astronomical  element. 
The  Sabbatic  division  of  the  Buddhist  week  is  also 
seen  by  the  following,  which  dates  from  the  4th  cen- 
tury B.  C.  : 

"  In  the  first  place,  Ananda,  when  the  Great  King  of 
Glory,  on  the  Sabbath-day,  on  the  day  of  the  full  moon, 
had  purified  himself,  and  had  gone  up  into  the  upper  story 
of  his  palace  to  keep  tlie  sacred  day,  there  then  appeared 
to  him  the  heavenly  '  Treasure  of  the  Wheel,'  with  its 
nave,  its  tire,  and  all  its  spokes  complete. 

"  When  he  beheld  it,  the  Great  King  of  Glory  thought : 
This  saying  have  I  heard  ;  when  a  king  of  the  warrior 
race,  an  anointed  king,  has  purified  himself  on  the  Sab- 
bath-day, on  the  day  of  full  moon,  and  has  gone  up  into 
the  upper  story  of  his  palace  to  keep  the  sacred  day,  if 
there  appear  to  him  the  heavenly  '  Treasure  of  the  Wheel,' 
.  .   .  that  king  becomes  a  king  of  kings  invincible." 

In  foot-notes  we  have  the  following : 

"1.  Uposatha  is  the  name  for  the  sacred  day  of 
the  moon's  changes — first  and  more  especially  the  full- 
moon  day ;  next  the  new-moon  day ;  and  lastly  the 
days  equidistant  between  these  two.  It  was  therefore  a 
weekly  sacred  day,  and  as  Childers  says :  may  often  be 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  109 

well  rendered  Sabbath."  "2.  Uposatha,  a  weekly  sacred 
day  ;  being  fnll-moon  day,  new-moon  day,  and  two  equi- 
distant intermediate  days."  ^ 

Concerning  the  origin  of  the  week,  Max  Muller 
says  : 

"  It  is  well  known  that  the  names  of  the  seven  days  of 
the  week  are  derived  from  the  names  of  the  planets,  and 
it  is  equally  well  known  that  in  Europe  the  system  of 
weeks  and  week  days  is  comparatively  of  very  modern 
origin.  It  was  not  a  Greek,  nor  a  Roman,  nor  a  Hindu, 
but  a  Jewish  or  Babylonian  invention."- 

The  following,  corresponds  with  Mr.  MuUer's 
conclusions,  and  with  the  facts  already  presented  : 

"  Throughout  all  the  nations  of  the  ancient  world  the 
planets  are  to  be  found  appropriated  to  the  days  of  the 
week.  The  seven-day  cycle  with  each  day  named  after  a 
planet,  and  universally  the  same  day  allotted  to  the  same 
planet  in  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  constitute  the  first 
proof  and  leave  no  room  to  doubt  that  one  system  must 
have  prevailed  over  the  whole."  ^ 

CHIXA. 

The  knowledge  of  the  week  was  transferred  through 
India  to  China,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  : 

"These   planets  with   the   sun    and   moon,   form   the 

1  Buddhist  Suttas,  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  12,  pp.  251,  254. 

2  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,  vol.  5,  p.  116. 
^Godfry  Higgin's  Anaclypsis,  Book  1,  chap.  1  sec.  5. 


110  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

'  seven  bright  celestial  objects.'  They  constitute  the 
mythological  week  of  seven  days,  which  sprang  up  in 
Babylonia  and  spread  to  India,  and  also  through  Europe, 
in  the  da^^s  of  the  Koman  P^mpire." 

"  Some  Chinese  ahnanacs  call  Sunday  the  day  of  Mrit, 
the  '  Persian  Mithras,  a  name  for  the  sun." 
...  In  the    '  Peacock  Sutra '   the  days  of  the  week  are 
also  given."  i 

It  is  befitting  to  close  this  line  of  testimony  by 
the  following  from  high  authority,  which  has  been 
translated  especially  for  this  chapter.  President 
Goguet  of  France,  speaking  of  the  week,  says  : 

"  We  find  from  time  immemorial,  the  use  of  this  period 
among  all  nations  without  any  variation  in  the  form  of  it. 
The  Israelites,  Assyrians,  Egyptians,  Indians,  Arabians, 
and,  in  a  word,  all  the  nations  of  the  Orient,  have,  in  all 
ages,  made  use  of  a  week  of  seven  days.  We  find  the  same 
custom  among  the  ancient  Romans,  Gauls,  Britons,  Ger- 
mans, the  nations  of  the  North,  and  America.  Many 
vain  conjectures  have  been  formed  concerning  the  reason 
and  motives  which  determined  all  mankind  to  agree  in  this 
primitive  division  of  time ;  but  it  is  evident  that  the 
tradition  concerning  the  length  of  time  employed  in  the 
creation  of  the  world  has  given  rise  to  this  usage,  uni- 
versal and  immemorial,  which  originally  divided  the  week 
into  seven  days."  - 

1  Chinose  Buddhism,  by  Joseph  Edkins,  D.  D.,  p.  211.  Tubners 
Oriental  Seiies. 

2De  L'Origlne  Des  Loix,  Des  Arts,  et  Des  Sciences,  (Origin  Of 
Laws,  etc.,)— Vol.  1,  Book  chap.  2,  p.  217,  Paris,  1758. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  Ill 

The  following  conclusions  are  inevitable  from  the 
foreo^oino^  facts  : 

1.  The  week  of  seven  days  is  one  of  the  older  if 
not  the  oldest  of  the  universal  institutions  of  human 
society. 

2.  The  original  week  of  the  Accadians  and  other 
Asiatic  nations  is  identical  with  the  Ancient  week  of 
the  Hebrews,  which  is  shown  to  have  existed  previ- 
ously to  the  enslavement  in  Egypt,  by  the  pre-Mosaic 
history,  as  given  in  the  Old  Testament — see  Gen. 
ii.  2  ;  vii.  4  ;  viii.  10,  12.  It  also  appears  in  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath  before  the  giving  of  the 
Decalogue.  See  Ex.  xvi.  The  seventh  day  of  the 
Accadian  and  Babylonian  week  was  a  "  day  of  rest," 
and  was  identical  with  the  Sabbath.  This  indicates 
a  primeval  and  universal  Revelation  concerning  the 
Sabbath,  which,  combined  with  the  astronomical 
element,  gave  the  universal  week. 

3.  The  original  Hebrew  week  has  been  kept  intact 
until  the  present  time.  All  the  theories  concerning 
Sunday  as  related  to  the  Sal)bath  question  are  based 
upon  the  fact  that  it  is  the  first  day  of  the  Hebrew 
loeeh.^  This  identity  of  the  ancient  and  modern  week 
shows  that  the  Sabbath  and  the  week  are  both  much 
older  than  Judaism.  Certain  writers  are  very  per- 
sistent in  claiming  that  the  order  of  the  week  has 


112  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

been  broken  up  by  changes  that  have  taken  phice  in 
the  civil  calendar,  and  that  the  identity  of  the  days  of 
the  week  cannot  be  preserved,  because  of  variations 
in  longitude.  To  meet  these  objections  we  add  the 
following  facts  : 

European  countries  borrowed  their  calendar  from 
the  Romans.  In  the  pre-historic  period,  under 
Romulus,  the  year  is  said  to  have  been  divided  into 
ten  months,  aggregating  304  days.  How  the  other 
days  w^ere  disposed  of  is  not  known.  Numa  Pom- 
pilius,  the  second  king  of  Rome,  added  two  months, 
January  at  the  beginning,  and  February  at  the  end 
of  the  3^ear.  About  450  B.  C,  under  the  Decem- 
virs, February  was  taken  from  the  end  of  the  year, 
and  placed  next  after  January.  Under  this  arrange- 
ment the  month  was  made  to  consist  of  29  and  30 
days,  alternately,  to  accord  wdth  the  lunar  changes, 
giving  a  sum  total  of  354  days  in  the  year  ;  one  day 
was  added  to  this  to  make  the  number  more  "  fortu- 
nate." This  lunar  year  was  found  to  be  less  than 
the  solar  year  by  at  least  ten  days.  To  remedy  this, 
Numa  added  an  intercalary  month  once  in  tw^o  years, 
of  22  and  23  days  alternately,  thus  giving  1,  46^  days 
in  four  years,  or  an  average  of  366|  days  in  a  year. 
Complete  harmony  between  the  lunsir  and  the  civil 
year  was  not  yet  attained,  and  hence  it  was  ordered 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  113 

that  every  third  period  of  eight  years   should  have 
only  three  intercalary  months  of  22  days  each.     This 
gave  an  average  year  of  365i  days.     The  regulating 
of  the  calendar  thus  established  was  left  to  the  Pon- 
tiffs,   who    made    political    capital    by    intercalating 
irregularly,  so  as  to  affect  the  elections,  and  other 
events,  until  in  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar  the  differ- 
ence between  the  civil  and  the  lunar  year  amounted 
to   three   months ;  autumn    came    in    summer,   and 
winter    came    in    autumn.     To  remedy  this,  Julius 
abolished  the  lunar  year,  and  attempted  to  harmonize 
the  civil  year  and  the  solar  by  the  following  method. 
He  fixed  the  civil  year  at  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  and  one  fourth  days,  every  fourth    year  having 
three  hundred  and  sixty-six.     The  first  Julian   year 
was  reckoned  from  Jan.  1,  46  B.  C.  ;  our  civil  calen- 
dar   begins    at  that   point.     In  this  rearrangement 
under  Julius,  January,  March,  May,  July,  Septem- 
ber, and  November  each  had  thirty-one  days  ;  the 
rest   had   thirty  each,  except  February,  which  had 
twenty-nine,  with  an  added  day  every  fourth   year. 
When  Augustus  became  emperor,  he  demanded  that 
his  month,  August,  should  have   as  many  days    as 
July,  the  month  of  Julius  ;  hence  a   day  was  taken 
from  February  and  given  to  August ;  then,  that  three 
months  of  thirty-one  days  each  might  not  succeed 
8 


114  SABBATH  AND  SUNDAY. 

each  other,  September  and  November  were  reduced 
to  thirty  days,  each,  and  October  and  December 
were  increased  to  thirty-one.  On  such  childish 
grounds  were  some  of  the  changes  made. 

These  changes  did  not  remove  all  trouble.  Astro- 
nomical science  was  not  then  able  to  measure  the 
solar  year  accurately,  and  the  civil  year  was  ac- 
cepted as  ])eing  eleven  minutes  and  fourteen  seconds 
too  long.  It  was  even  more  than  this,  and  in  a  few 
centuries  the  vernal  equinox  shifted  from  the  twenty- 
fifth  to  the  eleventh  of  March.  In  1582,  Pope  Greg- 
ory XIII.  sought  to  correct  this  error  by  dropping 
ten  days  from  the  civil  calendar.  Gregory  also 
ordered  that  the  intercalation  of  one  day  in  each 
year  divisible  by  four  should  extend  to  the  centurial 
years,  as  well  as  others.  Such  have  been  the  changes 
in  the  calendar.  They  have  all  been  made  to  harmo- 
nize the  civil  year  with  the  solar  year.  Not  one  of 
them  has  touched  the  week.  Every  one  knows  that 
the  addition  of  one  day  each  leap  year  does  not  affect 
the  week. 

LONGITUDE. 

In  the  matter  of  longitude,  the  case  is  simple  when 
not  complicated  hy  erroneous  conceptions.  The  days 
travel  around  the  earth,  as  a  ship  or  a  man   does, 


OEIGIN    OF    THE    WEEK.  115 

retaining  their  identity  and  reaching  each  degree  of 
longitude  in  due  time.  As  a  simple  illustration,  take 
the  following  :  Richard  Do^  starts  from  New  York  to 
go  westward,  on  the  11th  day  of  August  1884,  at 
sunrise.  The  man  and  the  day  leave  New  York 
together.  But  the  day  outruns  the  man,  and  reaches 
Chicago  in  an  hour,  while  Doe  comes  in  much  later. 
No  one  complained  of  the  day  because  it  did  not 
reach  Chicago  at  the  same  hour  it  did  New  York. 
The  day  could  not  be  in  New  York  and  Chicago  at 
the  same  time  any  more  than  the  man  could.  When 
the  day  did  reach  Chicago  or  San  Francisco,  every- 
body hailed  it  as  the  11th  day  of  August,  the  identi- 
cal day  that  it  was  in  New  York,  just  as  Doe's  friends 
hailed  him  on  his  arrival.  No  day  exists  at  a  given 
degree  of  longitude  until  it  reaches  that  point.  In 
the  case  supposed  the  day  was  the  224th  of  the  year, 
the  11th  of  the  month,  and  the  2d  of  the  week.  This 
identity  was  retained  in  all  its  course,  at  Chicago, 
Omaha,  etc.  It  will  be  seen  by  this  illustration  that 
the  identity  of  each  day  is  kept  as  certainly  as  the 
identity  of  a  man  is  retained.  If  the  loss  of  identity 
could  occur  in  the  case  of  the  Sabbath,  it  would  oc- 
cur equally  with  every  other  day  in  the  week  the 
month,  or  the  year.  No  such  disorder  is  ever  sus- 
pected in  social,  or  business  life.     No  hint  of  such 


116  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

disorder  is  heard  except  in  connection  with  the  Sab- 
bath question,  and  then  only  as  a  means  of  breaking 
the  force  of  the  truth  thj^t  the  seventh  day  of  each 
week  in  its  regular  succession  is  the  Sabbath.  Com- 
merce and  science  have  agreed  to  correct  the  discrep- 
ancy which  occurs  when  the  circle  of  the  earth  is  com- 
pleted in  circumnavigation,  by  fixing  the  "  Day  line  " 
at  a  given  point  in  the  Pacific  ocean,  where  the 
movements  of  the  circumnavigator  and  of  the  sun 
are  made  to  harmonize. 

Have  the  week  and  the  Sahhath  come  to  us  in  reg- 
ular succession^  and  in  unbroken  order? 

The  Sabl^ath  measures  the  week  in  all  Biblical 
history.  The  week  is  fully  recognized  during  the 
Patriarchal  period,  previous  to  the  giving  of  the  law, 
(See  Gen.  vii.  10,  and  xix.  27,)  and  when  the  law 
was  given  (Ex.  xx.)  God  connected  the  Sabbath 
directly  with  his  own  example  at  the  close  of  the 
creative  week.  It  is  hence  legitimate  to  conclude 
that  the  Sal)bath  measured  the  week  before  the 
giving  of  the  law,  as  it  did  after. 

It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  God  deceived  the 
Israelites  at  Sinai,  by  founding  the  Sabbath  on  his 
own  example,  and  then  designating  a  day  not  in  the 
reguhir  order  from  the  Adamic  Sabbath.  It  would 
have  been  sheer  deception  thus  to  do.     The  Sabbath 


ORIGIN    or    THE    WEEK.  117 

law  rested  on  a  false  foundation  from  the  beg-innincr, 
if  the  day  designated  in  the  law  was  not  the  true  one, 
and  God  was  the  immediate  author  of  the  cheat. 
The  proposition  destroys  itself. 

From  the  olivine:  of  the  law  at  Sinai  to  the  comino^ 
of  Christ,  the  Israelites  retained  the  Sabbath  in 
unbroken  order ;  their  history  has  no  trace  of  con- 
fusion on  this  point.  From  the  time  of  Christ  to 
the  present,  the  Jews,  scattered  in  all  lands,  have 
maintained  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  with  the 
same  unbroken  regularity.  Thus  we  have  a  con- 
tinuous chain  from  the  present  date  to  Sinai,  and 
thence  to  Creation,  through  a  people  whose  tenacity 
of  national  life,  manners  and  customs,  has  been  the 
wonder  of  the  centuries.  This  preservation  of  the 
historic  Sabbath  of  Jehovah  is  not  the  least  impor- 
tant part  of  their  wondrous  mission  and  unfulfilled 
work. 

Christ,  who  is  the  center  of  all  dispensations, 
recognized  the  Sabbath  as  a  part  of  his  Father's  law 
and  pruned  it  that  it  might  bring  forth  more  and 
better  fruit. 

Since  the  middle  of  the  second  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  the  first,  third,  fourth  and  sixth  days 
of  this  same  Aveek,  measured  by  this  same  Sabbath, 
have  been  observed  to  commemorate  certain  events, 


118  SABBATH   AKD    SUNDAY. 

said  to  have  occurred  on  these  days  of  the  week. 
During  all  this  time,  no  lover  of  the  Wednesday  or 
the  Friday  fast,  or  of  the  Sunday  festival,  has  ever 
doubted  that  he  was  observing  these  days  in  their 
regular  weekly  order  and  succession. 

To  sunniiarize,  we  have  the  following  proofs  :  At 
Sinai,  God  gave  the  Sabbath  law  and  designated  a 
day,  which  he  founded  upon  his  own  example,  thus 
linking  it  with  the  "Adamic  Sabbath."  That  day 
in  its  regular  order,  the  Jews  still  keep.  For  the 
last  sixteen  hundred  years,  Wednesday,  Friday,  and 
Sunday,  have  been  observed  in  some  form,  in  their 
weekly  order,  by  so  many  persons  as  to  make  it  im- 
possible for  any  disturbance  to  take  place  in  the 
calendar  of  the  week,  without  leaving  traces  on 
almost  every  page  of  the  history  of  the  church. 

These  facts  give  all  needful  logical  and  historical 
support  to  the  claim  that  the  seventh  day  of  the 
week,  improperly  called  "  Saturday,"  is  the  Sabbath 
of  Jehovah,  in  regular  succession  from  the  hour 
when  the  mornini>'  stars  sans;  to«:ether  and  the  Sons 
of  God  shouted  for  joy. 


APPEXDIX  B. 

THE    IDEXTITY    OF    THE    WEEK. 

The  facts  which  appear  in  Appendix  A,  furnish 
abundant  proof  of  the  identity,  as  well  as  of  the 
origin  of  the  week.  But  there  are  many  excellent 
people  who  are  confused  by  the  foolish  cavilling  of 
those  who  say,  "  no  one  can  tell  which  is  the  hrst, 
or  the  last  day  of  the  week"  ;  hence  we  seek  to 
make  assurance  doubly  sure,  by  another  group  of 
facts. 

Philology  is  a  department  of  history.  Language 
is  embalmed  thought,  and  is  unerring  testimony  con- 
cerning the  habits  of  men  in  all  ages.  Names  are 
amono^  the  endurins^  elements  of  lano'uaoe.  The 
existence  of  the  name  of  a  given  thing  is  proof 
that  the  thing  existed  as  early,  or  earlier  'than  the 
name.  Thus  a  "  dead  language  "  preserves  the  his- 
tory of  the  people  who  have  passed  away.  Nautical 
terms  in  a  language  show  that  it  belonged  to  a  sea- 
faring race.  If  a  language  be  filled  with  the  names 
of  agricultural  implements,  we  know  that  those  who 

119 


120  SABBATH  AND  SUNDAY. 

spoke  it  were  tillers  of  the  soil,  even  though  the 
land  they  inhabited  be  now  a  desert.  Under  this 
universal  law  of  philology,  the  following  pages  show 
that  the  identity  of  the  week,  in  its  present  order, 
is  beyond  question. 

We  are  indebted  to  the  Eev.  William  M.  Jones, 
D.  D.,  editor  of  the  Sabbath  Memorial^  56  Mildniay 
Park,  London  N.,  England,  for  the  privilege  of  ex- 
tracting from  "  The  Table  of  Days,"  first  published 
by  him  in  1880,  and  reissued,  revised  and  enlarged, 
in  1886.  Mr.  Jones  was  for  many  years  a  resident 
of  Palestine,  is  a  linguist  of  no  mean  ability,  and 
has  laid  other  distinguished  pens  under  contribu- 
tion to  aid  in  his  w^ork.  We  gladly  subjoin  certain 
acknowledgments  which  appear  in  the  preface  to  the 
first  edition  of  the  Table  : 


"The  third,  fom-th,  and  fifth  numbers  of  this  journal 
contained  a  "  Table  of  Days"  in  twenty-six  languages. 
Whilst  preparing  an  enlarged  edition  of  this  important 
work,  we  'had  collected  the  names  of  the  days  in  fifty 
languages,  when  that  eminent  philologist,  Prince  Louis- 
Lucien  Bonaparte,  kindly  offered  to  furnish  the  days  of 
the  week  in  all  the  European  languages,  the  latter  being 
properly  classified  by  him.  In  doing  this  the  Prince  has 
rendered  us  and  our  Sabbath-keeping  friends  an  impor- 
tant service,  w^hich  will  long  be  remembered.     We  learn 


IDENTITY    OF    THE    WEEK.  121 

from  him  that  there  are  104  dialects  distributed  among, 
and  dependent  upon,  the  fifty-two  languages  given  in  the 
Table.  The  reader  will  find  the  table  prepared  by  the 
Prince,  of  special  interest. 

For  the  Assyrian  text  and  the  Targum  of  Onkelos  we 
are  indebted  to  Mr.  E.  A.  Budge,  whose  articles  on  Assy- 
rian archaeology  are  valuable  contributions  to  our  paper. 

Our  thanks  are  due  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  L.  Loewe  for  the 
Circassian  list  of  days,  which  he  heard  from  the  mouths 
of  the  natives  themselves,  and  for  valuable  remarks  which 
will  be  found  in  the  Notes. 

Thanks  are  also  due  to  the  Rev.  Albert  Lowy  for  state- 
ments respecting  the  Hebrew  and  the  Targum  dialect ;  to 
the  editor  of  the  Jewish  Clironide  for  confirmation  of 
certain  Jewish  customs  ;  and  to  Dr.  Birch  of  the  British 
Museum  for  assistance  in  the  Coptic. 

Much  valuable  aid  has  been  rendered  in  our  Armenian 
studies  by  Mr.  Krikor  H.  Shahinian,  of  Amasia,  Asia 
Minor,  formerly  a  student  of  the  American  College, 
Constantinople  ;  and  further  confirmation  of  matters  in 
our  researches  in  Arabian  literature  has  been  given  by 
Mr.  N.  Giamaal,  of  Acre,  Palestine,  a  Syrian  acquaint- 
ance of  former  years." 

1.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  Oriental  conception  of 
the  Sabbath  makes  it  the  chief  or  supporting  day. 
All  other  days  lean  on  it ;  all  proceed  towards  it. 
^  2.  Note  that  Samstag  Saniedi,  Sabbato,  etc.,  are 
the  exact  counterpart  of  Sabbath,  and  not  of  Satur- 
day. 


122  SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 

3.  The  follo^Ying  from  the  pen  of  Doctor  Jones, 
to  the  writer  is  worth  repeating  : 

"In  Malagasy,  Japanese,  the  languages  of  the  Cau- 
casus, of  eastern  Kurdistan,  Thibet,  Burmah  ;  in  west  and 
east  Africa,  and  central  also,  in  the  fifty-two  European 
languages  and  nearly  four  hundred  dependent  dialects, 
we  have  a  complete  chronological  account  of  the  sacred 
seven  days,  from  the  earliest  historic  times.  Man  has 
tampered  with  the  year  and  with  the  months,  but  he  has 
never  been  anxious  to  change  the  week  from  seven  to  any 
other  number ;  and  whatever  attempt  has  been  made  in 
that  dh-ection,  has  signally  failed.  Protestantism  has 
attempted  a  change  of  the  Sabbath,  but  that  said  attempt 
is  of  puny  man,  the  Table  of  Days  is  a  swift  witness. 
The  uses  of  these  languages  in  all  ages  and  countries  are 
in  accord  and  therefore  admit  of  no  contradiction.  They 
speak  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the 
truth." 

We  have  the  right  to  ask  a  careful  study  of  the 
question  of  the  origin  and  identit}^  of  the  week,  by 
every  reader.  It  is  an  important  element  in  the 
Sabbath  controversy.  The  facts  which  are  here  set 
forth,  are  a  complete  answer  to  the  claim  that  the 
Sabbath  and  the  week  began  with  the  Hebrew  nation 
and  the  legislation  of  Moses.  These  facts  answer 
with  equal  positiveness  the  still  more  visionar}^  notion 
that  the  Sal)bath  was  changed  at  the  exodus  of  the 
Israelites  from  Egypt,  and  that  hence,  the  first  day 


IDENTITY    OF    THE    WEEK.  123 

of  the  week  is  the  original  seventh  da3^  These  facts 
also  show  that  "  The  Sabbath  "  is  the  definite  proper 
name  of  a  specific  day  of  the  week ;  and  hence  that 
it  is  futile  to  assert  that  "The  Sabbath,"  and  "A 
Sabbath"  are  equivalents,  or  that  the  Sabbath  is  any 
one  day  of  the  week  which  the  choice  of  man  may 
indicate.  The  facts  herein  set  forth,  form  a  perma- 
neiit  barrier  against  all  similar  theories,  and  hold  us 
down  to  the  one  truth  of  the  ages,  and  of  the  fourth 
commandment :  "  The  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of 
the  Lord  thy  God." 

We  have  selected  representative  languages  from 
the  different  families,  modifying  the  family  arrange- 
ment somewhat  under  the  head  of  Japhetic  Group, 
in  order  to  retain  a  certain  important  geographical 
connection  among  the  European  languages. 

Those  who  desire  to  pursue  this  line  of  investiga- 
tion further  are  referred  to  the  Chart  by  Dr.  Jones, 
which  gives  about  twice  the  number  of  languages 
for  which  we  have  space,  and  prints  each  in  its 
native  text. 


124 


SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 


Ph 

o 

p^ 


hash- 

Vi-i. 

he  7lh 

hash- 
bath, 
•the 
bath. 

il 

l°l 

-met 
-bat 
.lesh. 
Sab- 
Day. 

o 

II 

yom 
she- 
Day  t 

Ol 

yom 
shab 
Daj 
Sab 

2« 

^5  A  >>5 

P 

o 

X3 

P 

6 

>> 

yoy-met  a- 

roy-ta. 

Day  of  Eve 

(of  Sab- 

bath.) 

6  v-N 

tei 

M.i 

•"IE 

1 

ill 

72 'J^ 

ill 

yov-met 
kham-sliu- 

sheb. 
Day  5th  of 
the  Seven. 

kham-sho 
))e-shab-bo. 
Five     into 

Sabbath. 

-^ 

-^1 

2 

il 

::::'/3 

yoy-met 
ar-bu-sheb. 
Day  4th  of 
the  Seven. 

ar-lja-oh  be- 
shab-bo. 

Four  into 
Sabbath. 

^    t 

5.^ 

a   ^ 

0^  .3  • 

-=  0  2^ 

eo 

-?    CO 

liil 

1  S 

7.-^ 

^ial 

•i-g"^ 

<M 

'S  • 

IS 

**5 

il 

.3  .':; 

Ml 

i« 

2"^ 

5-^ 

lo 

^ 

H 

r-t 

*>> 

2    ^ 

S  q3 

khad  be- 

shab-bo. 

One    into 

Sabbath. 

J=  OS 

C       rt 

B$ 

o  2     >>o 

l« 

O      (» 

pQ 

^5    (^1 

,d 

^ 

4 

ja 

W 

0  0) 

03  a 
7i9 

>^ 

?§ 

Ill 

^ 

II 

i^ 

w 

rn 

CO 

11 

II 

li 

i' 

Targum 
Dialect  of 
the  Jews  in 
Kurdistan. 

1^^ 

SABBATH   AND   SUNDAY.  125 


+^5 

II 
11 

ini  San- 
bat, 
le     Sab 
bath. 

Hi 

"So  O  c8 

>.    p 

«(» 

2i|  . 

i    :5 

e3^^ 

ill 

^g5 

05X3 

0)  eS(^ 

£:=>. 
n 

.^^^ 

3?» 

CD 

:e=^2    . 

e3     .d 

rl    A 

ei 

m-sh 

ab-b 

in 

bath 

1l"^ 

?2^ 

si 

is 

§1 

kha 
be-sh 
Five 

Sab 

d&H 

A 

jS 

iA 

ar-ba  be- 

shab-ba. 

Four    into 

Sabbath. 

^.5 

■§5 
2^ 

i1 
^1 

-la-tha  be- 
sliab-ba. 
liree  into 
Sabbath. 

t  i 

i  i 

si 

1i 

S     H 

>>  p 

=3     H 

c 

be- 
-ba. 
into 
ath. 

hi 

n 

7H 

CO  03 

If 

%t 

fl^          rQ 

fl   CK 

i^^ 

khad  be- 
shab-ba. 

One  into 
Sabbath, 

ft 

-So 
"3^ 

^1 

s 

.  ^ 

yu-m:it 
shap-tu. 
ays  into 
Sabbath. 

If 

al-as-bu. 
1.  jum-at 
he  Seven 
Col.  (of 
days). 

1- 

.  O  CI 
S       o 
CO  t--^ 

ill 

CO 

esH 

M 

■O'oS 

126 


SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 


^1 

pi  ehoou 
emmah  z 
shashaf. 
The  7th 
Day  or 
Pi  Sab- 
baton. 

San-ba  ta 
Tenna. 
Little  Sab- 
bath. 

Hor  ap          At-hor. 
Sheta.            Venus. 
Jupiter. 

pi  ehoou 
emmah— 

so-ou. 
The  6th 

Day. 

o 

pi  ehoou 
emmah  e 

tiou. 
The  5th 

Day. 

lit 

pi  ehoou 
emmah  d 

ftou. 

The  4th 

Day. 

ill 

o 

1— I 

(Hor  going 

baclv- 

wards). 

Mars. 

pi  clioou 

emmah  g 

shomt. 

The  3d 

Day. 

Hu-tshi-la 
ma-fa. 

2d  Trade 
Day. 

•< 
1 

''  i  '• 

III 

pi  ehoou 

emmah  6 

snau. 

The  2d 

Day. 

Hu-tshi 

Dura. 

1st     Trade 

Day. 

[ 

1— ( 

4 

pi  ehoou 

emmah.  o. 

ouai. 

The  1st 

Day. 

Sanbata 
Gudda. 
Festival 
Sabbath. 

pi  anan,  z. 
A  period  of 
time       be- 
longing to 
the  Sab- 
bath. 

ii 
II 

'a 

Coptic. 
Egypt. 

11 

02 


lA 

Shukra 
var. 

Venus' 
Star. 

id 

> 

'^    , 

Q.     .    U 

CS    ^4       . 

Brihus 

ti-var 

Jupita 

day. 

6^ 

'^h . 

ib 

as 

it 

3  «  M 

•^  >i 

u  >^ 

>r3 

II 

rt  3 

!i 

>  c3 

3'? 

g  a 

fi  c 

3  3 

S^^ 

cac» 

2a 

•S  s 

d  <o 

is; 

aS 

3  ^ 

^«^ 

w=« 

SABBATH    AXD    SUNDAY. 


127 


y 

S3    . 

1 

c» 

Oi 

>» 

,1^ 

33  00 

3 

•2g 

cj      2 


CO  -;  !-(  O  -rS 


2     o_£^ 


^•1 

a  w  QD 


©a,     c3 


o  o 


35  c3  O  -M  fe  'C 


fifcc 


^    >    S    ^    &    2 


ceco 


1=^ 


S~  3  J-a..  >. 


Bisbiissi 


a^. 


128 


SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 


yom-es- 

sabt. 
Day   the 
Sabbatn. 

^•^ 

m 

ir 

3 

>> 

3  . 

!2ti 

2^ 

*•">  03  "^- 

cj 

« 

< 

•= 

< 

ill       •  |si 


«5a^  "^SoiS  «^«i  5»=^ 

""^  '-'  a  ;3      M 


fi-^SS  =iS5^  ^'^sig  «QO 


-5  2    2^ 


ScjOs  3tjci  .o-F^k-^i' 


c3 


o^ 


^^Bi  -SI  a;  J  IIP 


o      ^ 


3  2  '«^^  leg 


^3'5> 


^  s    •  08  m  si  c-^ 


SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 


129 


B^u^    .2 

Sfl    2.2S 


>  ^    S  '^ 


^>; 


2^ 

Mm 

5h 


o  ^  ^ 

04 


s  'J 


03 


Wffl 


130 


SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 


iil 

III 

III 

Is 

II 

Kos-nunal 

Diy-clay 

(day    ivith- 

out  work) 

Sum  at. 

II 

Kuks- 

ketsha. 

Dry-Day. 

(day    with- 

5^ 

iosS 

bB.^ 

^K 

ei 

S     .03 

•^ 

sTcJ 

m 

l6^ 

s 

r 
=? 

w5 

02^ 

&H 

jjj? 

^ 

^ 

eS  ,i 

O  > 

s 

« 

.2  s  a 

"5" 

rr"  « 

"A  " 

O 

0 

6 

»5 

^ 

T! 

o 

^ 

c3 

S3 

2 

3 

44 

1 

^^ 

c» 

u 

u 

^ 

tsj 

O 

> 

.2  a 

to 

1 

25 

1 

CO 

3 

- 

5 

> 

V  o 

1 

ffi 

rTO 

c3 

ci 

-2^ 

II 

Is 

Ml 

§ 

§:" 

-o 

§<fl 

§ 

^11 

eg 

>« 

N 

tf 

"C 

5:5 

c3 

s 

§ 

03 

'^ 

K* 

# 

^ 

<1 

" 

C  3 

. 

r-  ^ 

^ 

^i 

5.2 

31 
Is 

1' 

tn 

SABBATH   AND    SUNDAY.  131 


a 


:3  I J 


1^ 


fl    s  ^  -s 


s 


CO 


-i^ 


CO 


^§3 


Q 


S  -d 


^^ 


^  Q  q 


Q  Q  Q 


13  fl 

-^  'S  5  a 

P         3  :;3  2 


^  "3  ^ 


»*  ^^  o  kL  Q 


S  2  S 


S,5?  sc'^  "Sc?  -Sm  'a 


^^ 


Sbc  ^^  2-2  »o8  g?'^ 

|«         ^i       »S 


132 


SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 


7.  CO 

11 

Sabbatum, 

Dies       Sa^ 

urni 

Sabbath, 

day  of  Sat> 

urn. 

^ 

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o 

d 

d  ^P" 

0^ 

>  .22 

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f 

Q. 

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s 

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CO    2 

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SABBATH  AND  SUNDAY.  133 


Ir    la"   «|o|  II 


o  1  o         «  -g-g  § 


Q 


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0)      a) 

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P^  1  _ 

<ri  !  .ii  §)  ^  -§  5f  So  .2 

*7  :  s       I  s  i  i  S  s 


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«  5  =  a  cs=i 


|m       ft^         Oh  boo  g£  p.a^       gs5=^>    |S- 


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134 


SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 


<g     ^^^  ^.p^  pcc' 


^     3     -  cc     cc^«  ".y,  c-     ^     « 


0)  00  ;h 

§88  s  = 


II 


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|S         I      It 


^ 


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csbo 

1^ 


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(»  rr, 


0)  O  *>  o  S  — 

o  o  «^  o  -3  o 

'►T"  O  f3  QJ  !i,  O 


SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 


135 


1-^ 

coco 

II 

SI 

Siiiund 

Corrujition 

of  Son- 

nabend. 

§■5 

^1 

Laugarda- 

(Of-bath- 
day). 

1 

fco 

'S 

1 

cc  bo 

bo 
9 

&^ 

>- 

Em 

f^ 

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fe 

a 

^ 

bo 

>> 

c5 

^ 

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-§ 

II 

1 

■5  S2 

S  bo 

■a 

i 

1 

Pi 

1 

H 

a 

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g 
& 

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a 

a>> 

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O 

o 

ci 

r 

o 

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o 

bo 

a 
Q 

a 

is 

11 

h-{ 

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a 

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ffi 

03 

g 

S 

§ 

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% 

PiH 

<t1 

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bo 

a 

"t 

1 

3 

O 

a 

3 

^3 
a* 

§ 

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Nl 

CO 

CC 

M 

1— 1 

^ 

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cj 

13 

0) 

^ 

s 

^ 

S^ 

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^ 

^ 

> 

k 

.3     3£ 

si 

11 

n 

is 
II 

136  SABBATH  AND  SUNDAY. 


<S.S9hO^<  SXi  ^^       c*J3  eS^  $J=  CJ-2 


O  S3 


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-j 

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SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY.  137 


O 

c 
o 
O 


O 

o 

Q 

H 

(In 


if 

S  eg 

If 

+3  c3 

111 

''^■9. 

-^•2 

jn^ 

eS^ 

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c-S 

3-5 

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xjS 

w+S  ^ 

02  " 

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(»  cS 

cS  :3 

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xl 

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o 

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rs 

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fl 

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PhOh^ 

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Ki 

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5? 

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CO   03 

il- 

3   Oj 

A  S^ 

©PQ  3 

t^s 

'^m- 

3fe3 

1-5  ^P3 

138 


SABBATH    AND    SUNDAY. 


O 


«4-i    a> 
o   - 

K^   a; 

^    O 

^  .2 


o      rt 


H  ^  M 
P 


a 

, 

r- 

yj 

rr 

rt 

rt 

rt 

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5^ 

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O) 

a 

OP 

C) 

r^, 

Cg 

^O 

c3 

O 

O 

,^ 

rt 

OQ 

r/3 

-^    C' 


be      -^  '^^ 


7i     <^ 

S     ^     I  * 


d  rt 
:-  y. 


i>3 


S 


fv,  t>J 


H 


^    '^     .'.    '^ 


i^  '6     Si:     a 


1 


72     S 


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8^ 


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r-      .^^    1^ 


bo 


>> 

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CD  T-s 

o    C 

i  i 


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bD 
p 

O 

J3 


r-^      jp        !X>      '^ 


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s 

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o 
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a 

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rj 

CS 

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oi 

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o 

f-H 

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n 

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o 

o 

CO 

h^ 

J^ 

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O) 

CI 

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rt 

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c3 
en 

S 

c; 

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OJ 

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n 

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a 

rt 

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c3 

, 

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aj 

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en 

^ 

IDENTITY    OF    THE    WEEK.  139 

The  testimony  of  the  seventy-five  languages  and 
dialects,  given   in  the    preceding   tables,  links  the 
weeks  and  the  Sabbath  as  they  have  come  to  us  in  an 
unbroken  chain  through  the  historic  period.     The  na- 
tions that  spoke  many  of  these  languages  have  long 
since  gone  from  the  earth.     But  the  words  of  their 
mothejL-  tongue  embalm  their  thoughts  and  practices  as 
ineifaceable  and  unmistakable  monuments  showing  the 
identity  of  the  week  and  of  the  Sabbath.     Tides  of 
emigration  have  swept  hither  and  thither  over  the 
earth.    Empires  have  risen,  flourished,  and  fallen,  but 
the   iveek   has   endured,   amid   all    convulsions    and 
changes.     The  earth  as  whirled  upon  its  axis,  and 
all   lono-itudinal    difficulties   which    some    men   now 
assert  as  against  the  identity  of  the  days  and  the 
week,  have   existed  since  man  began  his  course  of 
empire  over  the  earth.     Humanity  has  belted  the 
globe,  in   its  progress,    whether  from  one  or  from 
both  ways,  it  matters  not,  and  ages  have  failed  to 
produce    that   confusion  which  superficial  thinkers 
ignorantly  assert.     In  this  table  of  days  philology 
has  done  for  the  truth  concerning  God's  eternal  Sab- 
bath, what  cuneiform  inscriptions,  and  munnny  pits, 
are  doing  for  general  and  national  history.     When 
the  facts  presented  in  these  appendices  are  given  a 
fair  consideration,  cavil  must  cease,  whatever  prac- 


140  SABBATH   AND    SUNDAY. 

tice  as  to  the  Sabbath  the  reader  may  continue  to 
pursue.  God's  Sabbath,  the  busy  day  of  modern 
life,  and  the  sneered-at  relic  of  Judaism,  is  here 
shown  to  be  one  of  the  great  facts  in  universal  his- 
tory. Your  duty  to  observe  it,  hereafter,  dear  read- 
er, must  rest  upon  the  light  now  before  you.  God 
measures  our  duty  by  present  know^ledge,  and  not  by 
past  opportunities.  May  the  Lord  grant  you  strength 
to  follow  the  way  of  right  and  righteousness 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Page. 

Alford,  on  Matthew  xxviii.  1;  and  on  Luke  xxiii.  54,  56 

A  priori  argument,  1-^ 

Brown,  Prof.  Francis,  Sabbath  and  cuneiform  inscriptions,         93 

Calendar,  European  from  Roman  112 

Calendar,  Roman  under  Numa,  112 

Calendar,  Roman  under  Julius,                                .  113 

Calendar,  changed  by  Gregory  XIII.,  11-4 

Chambers'  Cyc,  origin  of  the  week  98 

Change-of-day  theory,  Illogical,  47 

*'                ''        Propositions  examined,  47 

Christ,  the  central  point  in  both  dispensations,  23 

Christ  did  not  teach  the  abrogation  of  the  Decalogue,  23 

Christ's  example  concerning  the  Sabbath,  26 

Christ  kept  Sabbath  not  simply  as  a  Jew,  33 

Christ's  example  concerning  Sunday.  64 

Christ,  resurrection  of,  prophecy  concerning  50 

Christ's  resurrection  not  on  Sunday,  59 
Christ's  crucifixion  and  entombment,  on  Fourth  day  of  the 

week,  59 

Christ  rose  on  the  Seventh  day  of  the  week,  59 
Christ,  an  impostor,  if  he  did  not  lie  in  the  grave  three  days 

and  three  nights,  63 

Christ,  resurrection  of,  Matthew's  account  53 

Christ,  resurrection  of,  Mark's  account  53 

Christ,  resurrection  of,  Luke's  account  52 


INDEX. 

Page. 

Christ,  resurrection  of,  John's  account  52 
"  Collection,"  at  Troas,  2)rivate  81 
Covenant,  definition  of  15 
Covenant,  word  first  used,  15 
Covenant,  deeper  meaning  of  16 
Covenant,  under  the  "new,"  God's  law  is  written  in  the  heart; 
passages  referred  to,  Heb.  x.  16;  2  Cor.  iii.;  Rom.  1st 
to  7th  chap.  17 
Covenant,  under  the  "old,"  salvation  came  through  ceremo- 
nies; under  the  "nesv,"  through  faith  in  Christ,  21 

Days,  table  of,  great  value  of  122 

Decalogue,  the,  composed  of  primary,  unchangeable  laws,  13 

Decalogue,  the,  basis  of  the  Hebi-ew  theocracy  13 
Decalogue,  the,  abrogation  of,  would  destroy  the  gospel  of 

Christ,  21 

Decalogue,  the,  was  the  foundation  of  both  covenants,  21 

Edkins,  Joseph,  Chinese  week,  110 

Emmaus,  Christ's  walk  to,  after  his  resurrection,  61 

Epistles  contain  only  one  mention  of  Sunday,  81 

Goguet,  Pres.,  primeval  week,  110 

Jones,  Rev.  Wm.  M.,  table  of  days,  etc.,  120 

Lange,  Trans,  of  John  xx.  19—23,  65 

Law,  definition  of  1 

Law,  piimary,  not  abrogable  1 

Law  antedates  creation  and  moral  government  1 

Law  of  the  Sabbath,  primary,  2 

Law  of  the  Sabbath,  universal  and  unchangeable,  3 

Law  of  the  Sabbath,  operative  at  man's  creation,  5 

Longitude  and  the  Sabbath,  114 

Lord's  day,  Rev.  i.  10.  86 

Luke  notes  customary  acts,  74 


IXDEX. 

Page. 

Manna,  the  gathering  of,  a  test  of  Sabbath  observance,  11 

Meyer,  on  1  Cor.  xvi.  2,  83 

Mailer,  Prof.  Max,  Hindu  week,  etc.,  107 

No-Sabbathism  defined,  36 

No-Sabbathisin,  claims  of,  examined,  from  Old  Testament,  37 

No-Sabbathism  from  New  Testament,  39 

No-Sabbathisra,  fruitage  of,  only  evil,  45 

No-Sabbathism,  passages  examined,  Deut.  v.  2,  3,  15,  37 
No-Sabbathism,  passages  examined,  Ex.  xx,  2;  Lev.  xxvi.  13; 

Psa.  Ixxxi.  9,  10,  etc.,  38 

No-Sabbathism,  passages  examined,  Ptom.  xiv.  1—7,  39 

No-Sabbathism,  passages  examined,  Rom.  vii.  12,  41 

No-Sabbathism,  passages  examined,  James  ii.  10,  42 

No-Sabbathism,  passages  examined.  Col.  ii.  16,  17,  42 

No-Sabbathisra,  passages  examined,  2  Cor.  iii.  7,  8,  44 

No-Sabbathism,  passages  examined,  Rom.  v.  13,.  45 

No-Sabbatliism  makes  infidelity  better  than  belief,  45 
No-Sabbathism  makes  rejection  of  Christ  the  only  means  of 

sakation,  45 

Oppert,  on  cuneiform  inscriptions,  96 

Paul  teaches  the  perpetuity  of  the  Decalogue,  25 
Paul  kept  the  Sabbath  while  establishing  Christian  churches,  27 
Pentecost,  Acts  ii.  1,  not  on  Sunday,  70 
Pentecost,  why  Holy  Spirit  then  given,  72 
Philological  museum,  Saturn's  day  indentical  with  the  Sab- 
bath, 105 
Philological  ai'gument,  importance  of  119 
Proctor,  Prof.  R.  A.,  origin  of  week,  etc.,  99 

Readings,  various,  on  1  Cor.  xvi.  2,  •  •  81 

Reasons  for  choosing  the  Seventh  day,  2 

Rotherham,  translation  of  John  xx.  19 — 23,  65 

Sabbath  idea  first  expressed  in  the  rest  of  Jehovah,       •  2 

Sabbath  law  and  Sabbath-day  inseparable,  5 


INDEX , 

Page. 

Sabbath-day  and  Seventh-day  inseparable,  6 
Sabbath  institution  the  result  of  obedience  to  the  Sabbath 

law,  7 

Sabbath,  known  before  the  giving  of  the  Decalogue,  8 

Sabbath  law  not  ceremonial,  ]3 

Sabbath  not  "Jewish,"  3c 

Sabbath  mentioned  GO  times  in  the  Xew  Testament,  33 

Sabbath  Memorial,  The  120 

Sayce,  A.  H.,  Chaldean  Sabbath,  96 

Smith,  C.  Geo.,  Accadian  Sabbath,  06 

Sunday  observance,  John  xx.  26,  (?)  69 

Sunday  observance  in  book  of  Acts,  (?)  70 

Sunday,  Paul  traveled  on.  from  Troas,  78 

Troas,  meeting  at,  held  on  evening  after  the  Sabbath,  77 

Tyndale,  on  1  Cor.  xvi.  2,  82 

Week,  origin  of  96 

Week,  Babylonian  91 

Week,  Accadian  91 

Week,  Indian  105 

Week,  identity  of  119 

Week,  in  Semitic  languages,  124 

AVeek,  known  to  Patriarchs,  10 

Week,  Hebrew,  unbroken  as  to  succession,  90 

Week,  Chinese  109 

Week,  in  Hamitic  languages,  126 

Week,  in  Japhetic  languages,  126 

Wilson,  H.  H.,  origin  of  the  week,  106 


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